Morning has come much too quickly as I am still exhausted. I start the day by going to the front desk and canceling the remainder of our stay.

This so-called hotel is awful and the frustration that we feel is prevalent.

We transfer to a new hotel where I have booked multiple rooms for the various family members who are on their way.  Our experience is vastly different at this hotel. Everything is clean and fresh and we have even been greeted with treats for the kids.  We have also received a lovely handwritten condolence card from the hotel staff.  Every time we pass the front desk I am greeted by name and we are asked if we need anything. Our rollaway bed is free of charge and they have taken this difficult time and made it a little easier.

We have lunch with various family members and then split into different groups to take care of different tasks. This day is filled with various airport runs, errands, details, drama, and frustration. I take the three girls and am determined to stick with errands and visits.

My goal is to avoid all drama and frustration.

After this, we head back to see my mother-in-law. Her apartment is easily filled with twenty people at any given time. Of course, she has five children who all have families of their own so this makes a house filled with activity, love and a few other things. There are various interesting conversations, some more frustrating than others, and then we all decide that we are hungry.

We head out to the local diner and it is here that I finally see my husband after a long day.

There are so many of us that have come together for love and support. It is really quite lovely. I look across the table to my mother-in-law and we share a look and I know that she is thinking the same thing.

She is lucky to have her family rally around her. I do not think that this would be the case for everyone.

We finally return to the hotel and I read the obituary which has now been posted on the funeral home’s website. There is much discussion about this.

At 2 a.m., I finally lay my head down and I can smell my father-in-law. The smell is so strong that I ask my husband if he has used any of his father’s cologne, shampoos or soaps. He has used none but yet I am sure that I smell my father-in-law in the room.

When I fall asleep, my father-in-law visits me in my dream.

My dream is filled with a montage of happy times that my children and I had with their grandfather.  The thoughts that stick the most with me are of his absolute joy over the birth of his two grandsons and the day that he sat with Jenna for two hours playing Barbie’s. He then followed that up with a tea party. In my dream he speaks to his first born grandson, my oldest child, in Spanish.