The Thanksgiving holiday is coming to a close and I find my heart finally ready to write\u00a0a few words regarding those things for which I am thankful.\u00a0 As with most people, I am thankful for many things.\u00a0\u00a0However this year I would like to resist the urge to rattle off a long list.\u00a0 Rather\u00a0than pour out a\u00a0flood of thanks\u00a0and have the importance of a single drop be lost in the\u00a0deluge,\u00a0I’ll keep my thanks to one thing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It has been almost three years since my mother-in-law died.\u00a0 When she was alive, we did not always see eye-to-eye but I do believe she loved me, as I did her.\u00a0 When\u00a0my family went back to the house for Thanksgiving this year, it was not the same.\u00a0 Her absence made a big difference.\u00a0 The house is changing with the times and the place that was so much of her is slowly becoming less and less so.\u00a0 Nevertheless,\u00a0here and there, in a forgotten corner, you can still find a picture or a trinket.\u00a0 Or perhaps a note written in her hand.\u00a0 Little reminders that she was once here and left some things behind.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I am thankful for the stuff she left.\u00a0 Not the\u00a0stuff left in the house, or the\u00a0things she gave my wife before she died.\u00a0 But the things she left in us.\u00a0 I can\u00a0find\u00a0pieces of her\u00a0in my wife. \u00a0There are traces of her\u00a0in my kids.\u00a0\u00a0She even left a bit of herself in me.\u00a0\u00a0 Carolyn Hardyman is with\u00a0our Lord.\u00a0 She has made the journey to her eternal home.\u00a0 But not before leaving a part\u00a0of herself in many of us who must remain here a little longer.\u00a0 We are better for it.\u00a0\u00a0And so, this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for what\u00a0she left behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Thanksgiving holiday is coming to a close and I find my heart finally ready to write\u00a0a few words regarding those things for which I am thankful.\u00a0 As with most people, I am thankful for many things.\u00a0\u00a0However this year I would like to resist the urge to rattle off a long list.\u00a0 Rather\u00a0than pour out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[26,18,62],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc","tag-death","tag-life","tag-tribute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":760,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}