After church and Easter breakfast we came home for a little while. I changed clothes and took a nap. I wasn’t asleep the whole time but stayed in bed for the most part until we were supposed to go to my mother-in-law’s house. During that time my husband came in asked what it was we were supposed to be bringing. I told him corn casserole which is like the easiest thing in the world. I told him the ingredients and the directions, which is basically just to mix all of the ingredients together.

He said he’d make it. I said okay, but don’t say anything about you making it while we’re there. I feel like every time we go over there he’s the one who ends up making the food dish. Over time I’ve learned through observation that when you’re going over to somebody’s house for a bigger meal you’re supposed to ask if there is anything you can bring. She asked if I could bring corn casserole or a salad. I asked if she needed me to just bring both and she said she thought one would do.

I used to ask them to bring drinks, but lately if she comes over I’ve just been saying, “No, just come on over” or something like it. The new house still has a whole second fridge in the mud room that’s full of drinks. People have made comments to her about the house being too big for just one person or talked about her downsizing and moving back into something smaller and closer in town. Today she said, “Nope, I’m staying.” At least for now, she did add. She says she’s getting used to it.

This evening I was going through my pictures from last Easter. I have one of my father-in-law when we were sitting together on the old house’s porch. I was on the porch glider and he was sitting on a regular chair in front of me. As people were leaving from last year’s Easter dinner he said, “We’ll do it again next year.” We did do it again next year, with all of the same people, minus him. The kids had their egg hunt outside in the yard. Josh and I hid the eggs and the kids found all 100 of them.

At my father-in-law’s visitation someone commented about how his death probably came as a kind of relief. I did not fault them at all for saying that, but I didn’t agree. Honestly we were just glad for every day that we had him. He suffered especially in the last several months, but he was here, and up until the very end he hoped to get better. But I am grateful for the times that we did get to spend him with him. I wish he was here to still share in the new times. I know one day he will be.