Part II: R.R.O. - White Daisy Passing

       

    

 #108

08.28.10

    

White Daisy Passing - Rocky Votolato

      

R.R.O., my mother-in-law of 17 years, was diagnosed with Stage IV (metastatic) cancer on 06.29.09.  After exactly 365 days of some terrible lows and a few brilliant highs, she passed away on 06.28.10.  Today is the two-month anniversary of her passing.

   

I will not be able to write a proper tribute to her, which I had hoped to do.  Perhaps some future day, when I have been able to wrap my brain around it all.

   

For now I will have to let the photos and the music do most of the speaking for me.  But I will mention that R.R.O. loved daisies, and that I miss her, and that I understand her more after her passing than I did while she was living.  I feel badly for that, and can do nothing but accept it and try to be better about understanding those who surround me now.

   

And I will forever look at daisies in a different light.

    
  

These were taken this afternoon.  The rain, the drooping daisies, the listless flag... everything is as it should be.

  

 

  These three photos were taken with my Canon Xsi on the day of her funeral viewing.

  

  

  

This simple, candid iPhone photo is how I will choose to remember our R. forever.

 

I was privileged to spend a full week alone with her and my father-in-law, D.H.O., in March, 2010, and took this one night during a glorious Arizona  sunset.  It is the last photo I took, and will ever get to take, of her.  It is also the last time I stood near her in life.  Despite the devastating loss, D.H.O. has been an anchor for the family through it all.

 

I will always love and miss you, Mom.

 

CCE