A meme somewhere recently reminded everyone that to keep the brain sharp and the body from aging, one needs to stay flexible. I like to think that I’m a fairly easygoing and adaptable person, but Monday morning took the cake. I rolled out of bed at o’dark thirty to work out and get ready for CC, and in the course of a few hours, everything went one-eighty on me. School was canceled due to an impending ice storm, and the next thing I knew we were on I-44 on the road to Ohio because Jim’s grandfather wasn’t doing well.
We made it in time to pay our respects and say our goodbyes (and hopefully be a little helpful). He passed away peacefully last night, and as I sat next to his bed and told him what the gas prices were (always his first question), and what his great-grandsons were up to, I couldn’t help but tear up even though he’d run his race faithfully and was ready to go home. He was the original. The OG James Ramsey. Because of him, I’m married to a James Ramsey and gave birth to a James Ramsey. I’m literally surrounded by them.
Yesterday was also the 20-year anniversary of the day Jim proposed to me. So yesterday marked the day I said yes to James The Third, and said goodbye to James The First. Sad and cool at the same time. On the drive up here we were telling the kids the story of how dad proposed and it’s funny how the story changes over the years. Now, of course, it was hilarious that I was so cranky that day. It’s even more hilarious that my family and his were all hiding and expecting Jim to propose when he surprised me, but he didn’t, he whisked me away and then proposed while driving the convertible down highway one. I should have realized then that he does not perform for attention and is absolutely impossible to shame or cajole into anything. Ha. Thankfully I love that about him (ninety-nine percent of the time).
At this point we’ve been together so long, I’ve actually been with him a larger percentage of my life than I’ve been without him. We truly were kids… in love and married when most people thought we were too young. At this point we’ve become so intertwined I sometimes can’t tell where I’m becoming more like him, or he’s becoming more like me. I had this thought as we battled through icy roads and windshields that were freezing so fast that not even the heated defrost on full blast could keep the glass clear. Was this his crazy idea? Or mine? We both love road trips…our kids love road trips…everyone loves road trips, except I do sometimes wish they didn’t feel quite so dangerous sometimes. For the most part, we had good weather and safe roads, but there are always those moments when you’re boxed in by 18-wheelers going 10 mph faster than you and it’s snowing hard and you just sort of grip the wheel and pray those truckers know what they’re doing. At least when you’re flying you have no idea what’s going on in the cockpit.
Ohio and family time have been great, I’ll have to pry my kids away from their cousins when we get everything wrapped up here and head home. If I could just book a storm-free corridor from here to the Ozarks that would be great.