Today I heard Bruno Mar's song Just the Way You Are on the radio. It's the first time in five months that I heard this song and I didn't immediately start crying. This was my brother-in-law's (Kong's brother) song for his wife, Stacy. We lost her to breast cancer back in February.
Stacy was an amazing human being. Just the kindest, most gentle soul. She was smart and strong too. So naturally, her offspring (our nieces and nephew) are also amazing children. The three months following her passing we traveled to LaCrosse, WI every weekend. Since then we've continued to see each other. Not every weekend but still, almost every weekend. Being together is never any work. Our kids love spending time together, we always have loads of fun, and we all genuinely love being together.
Last weekend the kids stayed in St. Paul with us. While sitting in the theater waiting for Taylor and Ayden's show to start, Julia turned to me and said, "Aunt Kaohly, remember a long time ago, you know, when we use to see each other every weekend, we should do that again." So Logan turned over and said, "Yeah, why did we stop doing that?" I explained to them why to which Julia replied with, "I know how we can fix all of this, you should just move to LaCrosse. Then we could see each other all the time." Julia said that she would spend this week looking for jobs for her Uncle Kong and me.
We have always been close as a family but I didn't realize how much closer we had grown to each other these past five months. Julia (the youngest) is not a touchy feely person so it says a lot that she always wants to sit
next to me, lay by me and be near me. Sure, half of that time we spend pretend punching each other but still. That's saying something, right?
I guess when I heard the Bruno Mar's song today maybe I didn't immediately burst into tears because instead of reminding me of Stacy's passing it reminded me that I had gained three kids. Three kids that I love like my own. No one will ever replace Stacy. I just hope that what little love I can give completes the kid's hearts just a little bit.
