Sunday, Jan. 15

Slept until around 8:30 this morning, and skipped my exercises after breakfast. Upon checking my social network page, I learned that my ex-husband had passed away at 12:50 this morning.

Later in the morning, Son called, and we talked for a long time. Then I talked for a while with Daughter. All of my children are at peace with the decision that their father had to be taken off of life support. They are grieving, of course, and they know there will be sad days ahead, as they remember the good times they spent with him.

I'm especially proud of my older son, who has been a rock for his siblings, his half-brothers and sisters, and his stepmother during the long hours and days of his father's hospitalization. Today, he and his stepmother met to make memorial service arrangements. Visitation will be Tuesday night, and the service will be Wednesday at 10 a.m. I will plan to attend the memorial service, in support of my children. Sis will come up to stay with Mother while Hubbie and I are away.

By the time I was ready for the day, it was already noon. I heated leftover chicken and dumplings and mashed potatoes for our lunch.

Around 2 p.m., we decided to take advantage of this relatively mild January day to go to a lake about 45 minutes away to see the trumpeter swans. We try to find things we can do with Mother as often as possible, because she gets tired of sitting around the house doing nothing all the time.

The trumpeter swans winter in our state from around Thanksgiving to around Valentine's Day. The swans have been visiting here for several years, after they somehow got off course one year and found the small lake to be a safe haven. The lake is now a protected preserve that the swans faithfully migrate to every year.

Though the temperature was near 60 degrees, a breeze off the lake made it a bit chilly, so Mother and Hubbie enjoyed the view from the warmth of the van, while I got out and snapped several pictures of the beautiful and graceful birds.

We were back home around 5 p.m., and had a supper of leftover chicken salad for Mother, and leftover chili for Hubbie and me, followed by slices of warmed apple pie with ice cream.

Hubbie accompanied Mother home afterward, and then he and I settled in front of TV, as usual.