Jarah's Spring Break // Day Four & Five

Day Four

(This is a photo of my Mimi from last January.)

(1) Jared and I got to sleep in for a while, but then we had to get up and at 'em because we were going to head to my Hometown to visit my Mimi, who is currently fighting for life right now, due to her failing heart.

(2) An hour and a half after we left from the Fisher's house we made it to Applebee's in my Hometown where we met up with my momma, daddy and sister for lunch. Lunch was really good, but I don't think any of us were really crazy about going to see Mimi in the sad state that she's in.



(3) We arrived at my Mimi and Papa Gary's house after we finished eating lunch with my folks. As soon as we walked in the door I saw a large oxygen machine to my left and about 50 foot of ugly green oxygen tubing running along the floor to the room where my Mimi was sprawled out on the couch in her silk pajamas. She looked as if she had aged 10 years since I saw her in January (when we helped her move into their new rental home.) She looked skeletal, quite pallid and very thinly worn. Her face brightened though when she saw my family and boyfriend enter into the room.

We spent some time making small talk, though most of it on my Mimi's end was pretty nonsensical (she's on morphine for pain at this point.) After about 10-15 minutes of us being there I looked over at the piano and Mimi did too. She asked me to play Pachelbel's Canon in D and I obliged. After I finished Canon I moved on to playing some of our favorite old movie show tunes...from Beauty & The Beast to the main theme in Jurassic Park. Mimi fell asleep right about the time I was halfway through playing the Colors of the Wind song from Disney's Pocahontas.

I kept on playing piano for nearly an hour or so while Mimi slept. I'm really glad that I got to play the piano for her, as we both dearly love music, and especially piano music. She and I are the only "musical ones" in the family, really, and even when we sometimes haven't gotten along quite so well over the years, we've always shared music together as a cohesive language of the soul. You don't need words to tell someone how you feel about them when they are teetering at the edge of Heaven's gate, because melodies and notes simply strung together, hanging on the air, create an atmosphere of peace and love that speak voluminously.

I'm very thankful I got to share this with Mimi, whether that was our last time together or not. Jared and I talked with my family there a while and then after a few hours we decided that it'd be best to head back to Jared's family's home. Right as Jared and I walked out of the door though Mimi woke up and I went back in to say goodbye. She told me that my hair looked "different" and "pretty," said I was her "pool buddy" and that I ought to make a tape for her of me playing the piano for her. Then I told her to get well and that I'd see her soon and she told me that she loved me. The last three words she said to me were "Tell Jared goodbye."

(4) Jared and I left my Hometown a little after 4pm and made it back just in time to have dinner with Jared's family.

Day Five



(1) I woke up early so I could finish reading Jill Williamson's Replication. I really really wanted to finish reading it last night, but my eyes got really heavy and wouldn't cooperate with my wishes. So I opted for the haystack, erm, bed at a semi-decent hour. I'm a BIG fan of Jill now that I've read one of her books! Now I just need to get her Blood of Kings trilogy. Anyone want to lend me the trilogy? ;)



(2) Jared had to go get his car inspected...and you guessed it...we played the waiting game, but only for a little while. At the auto place I played around on Fb on my phone for a bit and then I noticed that there was this old man, wearing and I Heart Jesus hat, running an old authentic shoe-shine station right in the middle of the auto place. It was pretty rad! The shoe-shine station kinda looked like the situation in the photo ^^ above. Feeling the Dickensian vibe, anyone? I sure was. I thought shoe-shiner's were a thing of the olden days. Guess I was wrong. Okay, nerd rant over.

(3) Jay and I stopped in for some lunch at Arby's before heading to the mall area. Our sammies did not disappoint, lemme tell ya! We talked about our childhood "adventure" memories together over lunch, it made for some interesting conversation, that's for sure! I think Jared and I are slowly learning about each other more and more...in that we know we have to give a little to get a little. Cliche, I know, but Jared is a homebody and I'm just a plain old adventuresome live-wire. So, needless to say we're working on some things. ;)



(4) We decided to check out some of the books at Books A Million. They usually have a really good bargain/used library book section that we love perusing through (though sadly, the one in Asheville has closed down.) This time however neither of us left the store having made a book purchase. I know. What in the world is wrong with us!? I did look through some old Meg Cabot books while I was there. That brought back a lot of memories too. I almost bought one of the books on the spot just because of the memories I have of reading a good Cabot novel back in the day, but then I read through the first two chapters and realized that I was ready to fully move onward toward "Big Girl Books" now. It's not that I don't like Meg Cabot anymore, it's just that her books are definitely geared towards 14-18 year olds, and well, I haven't been in that age bracket for a while now. I love books written for the masses really, think: Suzanne Collins, C.S. Lewis, Jill Williamson and my all time favorite author Madeleine L'Engle, to name a few that accomplish this no-age-limit-and-definitely-not-dumbed-down writing style.


(5) Jared and I got back to the house and then proceeded to look through old photos of us on the internet/computer. Many laughs abounded. Yup, that's the first photo of us two together in '09 where we met at (Fuge Camp) up ^^ above there.

(6) We had a nice dinner of Beef Stroganoff and Garlic Cheese Bread with the family and now Jared and I are both just settling in for the evening...not sure what the rest of it may hold for us.

And that was how day four and five of Spring Break went for Jarah. We'll be headed back to the mountains tomorrow morning. Thanks for tuning in to read about mine and Jay's Spring Break! I'll be back to regular posting soon. Promise. 

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