The past week has been filled with ups and downs

From a personal standpoint, the last week has been a bit of a rollercoaster for me.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

On Jan. 5, I got a call that my aunt, Patsy “Pat” White, had passed away. We buried her Monday afternoon.

Pat was there for pretty much every big event in my life from high school graduation to standing in for my deceased mother and lighting the unity candle at my wedding.

She was there for pretty much every birthday often times baking the cake, as my mother was far from Betty Crocker in the kitchen. It was usually red velvet cake and always with red velvet icing.

Pat loved decorating for Christmas. She would have her color schemes for her Christmas tree planned out years in advance. She always over did it cooking for Christmas. One year she had at least one tub of Cool Whip for everyone there…LOL.

Pat was smart and funny.

She helped teach me how to drive often times taking me on unfamiliar roads so that I would have to think about what I was doing.

Pat was active in her church, Keck Baptist Church, for as long as she could be. She was a proud Christian. She was one of those people, who would drive her older friends to doctor’s appointments or the store, if they couldn’t drive themselves or didn’t have someone to take them.

The last few years of her life, Pat’s mind had started to slip, as sometimes happens to people when they get to be a certain point in their health and their lives.

She had to move into the nursing home during the pandemic.

The last two years or so, her body was still there, but her mind was largely gone. I remember after the death of our cousin, Terry, dad had brought Pat over to his house that Sunday afternoon. Three times over the course of three hours, she found out for the first time that Terry had died.

Over the last six months or so, Pat’s body started slipping like her mind had already done.

While I will miss her, a large part of me is glad that she has gone on to a much happier place where I have no doubt she will be surrounded by dogs and be busy planting flowers and visiting with people.

I know I will see her again there one day.

As I wrote earlier, the last week has been a bit of a rollercoaster for me personally. The day before Pat’s death, I celebrated my 53^rd birthday.

I went out and ate at Pizza Hut in Williamsburg that evening with my wonderful wife, Cecelia. (What can I say, Pizza Hut just sounded good that night…LOL.)

Cecelia got me a really nice gift in the form of two tickets to see the University of Kentucky vs. University of Tennessee basketball game in Knoxville in March.

Go Cats!

(John Baker has already volunteered to go with me if my wife decides she doesn’t want to go…LOL.)

I am at the point with birthdays where I largely don’t dread them except for maybe the ones with a nine or zero at the end.

I just approach them with the attitude that getting one year older certainly beats the alternative. It also puts me one year closer to retirement, if that ever comes.

I’m hoping for a more normal rest of January from here on out, but who knows what the rest of the month will bring.