2024 in Review – Life Events

This is the first post reviewing what happened to me in 2024; I’m starting with the big events.

2024 included a bigger-than-usual event…perhaps even a pivot point in my life: my mother died. We had shared our lives for over 70 years; no one else can fill the gap completely. The months leading up to her death (hospitalization, moving to assisted living, rallying, COVID-19) and the immediate aftermath (the funeral, selling my parents’ house, finalizing her financial affairs, comforting my father) are still fresh in my memory. I’m not completely sure that the pivot is complete even now. My relationship with my siblings (3 sisters) is still changing.

All the other events of 2024 are not as life changing:

Taking the Identifying Wood Plants class at Missouri State University and the Missouri Master Naturalist training were an important step back to pre-COVID times. Both have prompted an uptick in volunteering and discovering ‘favorite places’ close to home.

Attending a funeral for my cousin. She was more than a decade younger than me, and we had not seen each other frequently in recent years. It happened not that long after my mother’s death and the sadness was quite different…for a life that ended early.

I made many short trips (day trips, one or two nights away from home) with my daughter. Sometimes with my husband along too. There are so many new places to explore when one moves to a new part of the country. We have been here in Missouri for 2.5 years and there still seems a lot to see for the first time within the ‘short trip’ range.