On Tuesday, we set out getting boxes to pack up all of Paul's belongings. Some people are given time before they are faced with having to deal with this painful task but we were not allowed that time.Paul was renting his place so we had to pack up all his possessions, and Jeff and Dawn needed to return back to their respective homes and jobs.
When we arrived at Paul's place, there was a kitten by the door. Paul had been feeding her and so we brought her into the house and fed her. Now, as I recall these events I believe finding this sweet kitten added some comfort to our difficult task. The time spent at his house brought us so many emotions, from sad to the bittersweet. I had a hard time walking into his bedroom for the first time since I found him, it was hard for all of us. I tried not to picture him lying there but it was impossible. Jeff sent me to the kitchen to start there and he took care of his bedroom. Like I said it was mixed emotions, we commented on how Paul was, to put it mildly, not very neat, so there was some cleaning up to do, besides packing. We were to discover how much of a pack rat Paul was!!! There were newspaper clippings from the Chicago Bulls and more, but the one that got us to laughing was that he saved a clipping from the front page news when Elvis died, Paul was only 8 years old !!!! The most precious of his possessions was his collection of baseball cards. We recalled how he packed them so carefully in so many of our moves. Jeff is the keeper of those precious baseball cards now.
On Friday we were finished with the packing and cleaning. We were going back to my house to meet our friend Donna who was driving in from Texas to be with us. I tried to discourage her from making such a trip, but she insisted. In the meantime, I turned around to take a last look at Paul's place. This place that brought him so much joy and me so much sadness. Then I spotted Paul's stray kitten, I couldn't leave her behind, so I scooped her up into my arms and told her I was bringing her home with us. When we arrived Donna was there waiting for us, it was funny how she brought this ray of sunshine or was it hope at this particular time. First thing we did was to bring her to the cemetary. Did I mention it is just up the road from my house? The next day we all went to The Garden of the Gods and out for dinner in Golconda. Just doing this brought back normalcy into our lives. Normalcy might not be the right word, life has its beginning, middle, and end.Perhaps, it's just that death is not something you face daily. Today, I don't dwell so much on Paul's death, but his life. Trust me, that did not happen overnight, his death and the unbearable pain took time to ease.
The following day Donna left to return back home, but she wasn't alone, she adopted
"Miss Kitty".
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