Discussion of post-death tasks after the Read More.
We dealt with our "burst into tears" trigger items last night. It hasn't stopped me from quietly weeping this morning as I remind myself I don't need that hyper-vigilance anymore, that I have many fewer things to listen and look for now.
We still have plenty of cleaning left to do-- it's amazing what we let go after she got so sick last fall and we devoted our time to caregiving. We have items for donation ready to go, since we knew this was coming, and just need to coordinate drop-offs. We were able to pay-it-forward with our unused medications, which we took with us yesterday.
I'm dreading washing my hoodie, as it has so much of her hair from her final week, but I know it needs to be done. I'm giving myself until Presidents Day. That was always our "girl time" at the house, since I had it off but Jay never did. Instead of spending the day taking her in for her yearly shots (as per the last 18 years) and then relaxing together afterwards, I'll use it to get my mourning haircut and do any final washing up I can't bring myself to do this weekend.
We've collected items for a memorial display, but still haven't quite chosen a photo to print for it. I'm setting a deadline of her birthday in April-- I think that would be a fine time for it, far enough from her passing but still a significant date. We still don't know where we want to display it-- it should be somewhere we can see easily if we want, but not somewhere that's always in our faces. The places we look often are going to be changing (no need to look back at the kitchen from the couch to see if she's eaten her food, for example), so perhaps some time to develop those new habits would be good, too.