Tia Ana survived the night and in the morning I took John to the hospital to see her. The two Ana’s hadn’t gotten much (if any) sleep, so I took my Ana for a walk to the nearby Parque Atlantico mall for a strong coffee and some food while John and Ana Margarida maintained vigil. Ana wanted to stay until the end so I took John back to the house then went down to the beach to enjoy the beautiful, sunny day. I always imagine we will have a lot of down time on these trips but it never works out like that as our schedule quickly fills up with family events and outings. But this morning, it was just me and the giant waves and the black sand and my thoughts. I enjoyed the time immensely and considered many things. Sailing to the Azores. Our kids visiting the island as adults. The eventuality of death. Learning to surf. Not being at work. The stickiness of sand. The difficulty of learning Portuguese. When did I last shave?
The mind roams and wanders.
I returned home to pick up Ana’s mom and took her to the hospital to see Tia Ana. I circled the area hunting for a parking spot, which took a very, very long time. At 2pm Ana messaged me with the news that her aunt had passed away.
The world had just lost a loving, joyful, beautiful person.
From here, things moved very quickly. Within a few hours the funeral had been completely arranged for the following day and Tia Ana was prepared and transported to the chapel at the cemetery. Ana and I made a quick stop at home for dinner, then packed up the elders and we all returned to the chapel to greet visitors for several hours.
It had been a mentally and physically exhausting day. But we felt very lucky this had happened while we were here visiting instead of having to grieve from afar.
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