The night Andy passed away, I cried a river of tears. I would be ok for a minute, and then I would have a panic attack and think “I want to die too! I can’t do this! I can’t breathe!” But Ken, Andy’s Dad, would tell me it was ok, and it would pass. Ken was a rock for me, and for that, I will always be grateful. I found that I needed to be close to him at all times because he was my link to Andy. He’s the one who called my Mom to let her know, and I had to cover my ears because I could hear her anguish on the phone. I think I texted my friends to let them know, but it was very late by then. I couldn’t stay at the house, I just couldn’t be there, so we went to Ken’s, had tea, and cried. We both slept a little, and then it was Day 2.
We went back to my house, and the troops began to arrive. My friends are angels, I chose well. If you ever doubt there is good in people, DON’T. The love and support they gave will me carry me through the rest of my life. They took over. Gail cleaned my frig…it never looked better. Janine and Sharon cleaned Andy’s room so my family could stay up there.
And here is a funny story…Andy had just cleaned up his room a few days before. He called it “Operation Clean Sweep”, bless his angel heart. He was very proud of what he had done up there…cleaned, put up some nice shelves, redecorated with some new lamps and tables. He invited me up to see it. It looked very, very nice. I was completely impressed. He loved entertaining his friends up there, and was excited to show them the new digs. It was a special moment, and one that I will cherish forever.
So back to the funny story. Anyone who knew Andy knows that he loved clothes. He had a wardrobe that any woman would kill for. So Janine and Sharon commented how clean it was already up there…and then they opened the bathroom door…where they found a mountain--and I mean a mountain—of clothes. Andy had a habit of letting his laundry pile up until he ran out of things to wear, and then he would do it all at once for days at a time. So my friends took trip after trip between his room and the house with armloads of clothes. The washing machine ran non-stop for 2 days, until at last, all the clothes were clean.
They stayed all day and took care of everything. Gail’s husband made chicken soup for me, Sharon’s family came over with chicken casserole. I love my friends! I couldn’t do anything. I just wanted to die so I could be with Andy, and they really came through for me. They left late, and Ken and I went back over to his house where we drank tea, looked at old pictures of Andy, and cried.
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