Friends:
It has been a little over two weeks since my dad passed away. It still seems a bit surreal, but I feel as though I owe you, myself, and my dad a final thank you. It was 13 weeks from the date my dad was diagnosed to the day of his funeral. At 3:30 a.m. on July 24th, my dad took his final breath, and while I was asleep dreaming of him doing just that and the phone ringing from the hospice, I was awoken to the sound of the phone actually ringing. It was an odd feeling to be dreaming reality. I was able to see some of you at the funeral home and the funeral, but I spoke with all of you during that time and I assure you, it meant the world to me to know you were there!
My dad had so many patients come to pay their final respects and every one of them told us that my dad always talked about me and Matty. Whether it was me on TV or Matty's wedding, they all talked about significant events in our lives and it was a blessing to know that my dad was proud of us, or bored in his own life and didn't have much else to talk about :) I even had one woman tell me how my dad talked about not being able to wait to walk me down the aisle! She is lucky I didn't slug her right there, but she was old, so I will forgive her for her total lack of common sense. Speaking of old, one of my dad's patients who is pushing 110 in age, hit my car in the funeral home parking lot so I didn't know which old lady I wanted to push in the casket with my dad first!
We have begun a new normal in the Cianflone family - it's now me, my mom, Matty and Maygan. His death leaves a hole in my heart so big, but I am forced to remind myself that as much as I miss him, his last words to me were I love you. How many people are that lucky? I had time with him just the two of us before I saw him that final time (well Scoobs was there too cuddled on his lap and it made my dad smile so big!) and I must be thankful for that closure. I pray that all of you reading this won't have to experience what I am going through for many many more years, but as we all know, life is full of unexpected ups and downs. Whatever the future holds, I hope that I can be there for you all as you have been there for me. I count my blessings and am thankful for each day because I look at a picture on my fridge of the 5 of us Cianflones from last September and realize just how quickly life can change.
Thank you all very much!
xoxoxo,
Chrissy
