Mom’s oldest and dearest friend drove over from Pennsylvania today to spend the day with her. Since it was about eight hours round trip, I was really praying she would find Mom having a relatively good day. And…

Thankfully, my prayer was answered. There was about an hour where she was very restless and almost inconsolable, but the rest of the time, when she was awake, she was in a good place. She smiled more than she has in the past two weeks, and it was encouraging to see her so peacefully content.

I can’t begin to say how nice it was to spend the day with Viv, my second mama. We caught up on each other’s lives and reminisced about all of the good times had in years past. And, like me, I’m sure she wonders what brought us to this point… how this could happen to her best friend, and how wonderful it would be to have some of those old moments back – even if just for a short time.

But alas, it is no longer 1989, we are no longer sitting in her family room on 4th Avenue opening Christmas presents. We are here, in 2012, making the best of what is, because in the grand scheme of things, what other choice is there?