Your Mom Likes Your Post

Today is Mom’s birthday and marks seven months since she passed. Almost seven months since I stayed behind until everyone left the grave site and sang “God Be With You Til We Meet Again” because I had never sung a song just for her, even though I know she loved to hear me sing. (Ainsley took this picture of me from the car, and I didn’t realize how much it would mean to me.) Seven months of all kinds of things—big and little, happy, crazy, sad—that have happened that I haven’t gotten to tell her.

Dad recently learned how to use Facebook to look at pictures of all the grandkids, read posts, etc. He’s probably reading this at some point. (Hi, Dad! ) The thing is, he signs on to Mom’s old tablet on her Facebook account. The first time he liked a post was a couple months ago, when I posted about Lola’s baptism. I got a notification that said “Patricia Hansom likes your post,” and I just froze. I don’t know how to describe it, but it was big. It only took a few seconds for me to realize it was Dad, not Mom, but it was more than that, and it’s stuck with me.

Now, occasionally I still get those notifications. There’s less shock, but I admit I kind of love it. There’s a lot I haven’t been able to say to her these seven months, and a lifetime of stories to tell when we do meet again, but I like to think when she isn’t busy doing the loads of work I know she is doing to reunite the generations before her up there, she’s checking in from her big recliner in the sky.

If you’re lucky enough to live near and see Dad, give him a squeeze for me. I’m sure he can definitely use them today (and always)!