For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 07, 2021

hang in there, Richards siblings

Yes, Phil, you will.

No, you won’t, Phil. Even when you know it’s coming, nothing can ever really or fully prepare you for the loss of a parent when it finally happens!

No one is guaranteed even one more breath.

The answer to that last question is No.

Too many memories, I get it. :(

Don’t want mom and dad to go? They are just moving into a condominium. It was Elly and Phil that actually moved out of the parent’s house to move to Ontario.

So Phil, any idea when you will be giving your parents and Georgia’s parents some grandchildren?

Having the opportunity to say good bye is priceless, and the most important part of the grieving process, or so I’ve been told. Both my parents died unexpectedly of natural causes… My mother laid down because she had a migraine. She never woke up. She had an aneurism in her sleep. i found her while she was still experiencing the stroke, which to my 18 year old eyes looked like a seizure, and they kept her on machines in the hospital for a couple days but she was gone when i found her. I spoke to my father on the phone at 9 am the morning he died. i was coming home from university for the weekend to help him with his business like i did every weekend and we were planning out who was doing what as he was opening at a new farmer market that weekend while i was looking after our permanent location. At 11 am he was dead from a massive heart attack. Both my parents were gone before I was 23. Now I am about a year younger than my mother was when she died, and the scariest thing i do every night is go to sleep, knowing i may not wake up again, as i started having headaches a few years ago, was checked and have a small aneurism that normally gets monitored for size change every year, but hasn;t for a couple years now due to the pandemic. Take the time to talk regularly to those you love. Life is full of the unexpected.

…no

Lynn’s Comments:

I once asked my kids to put their names on the items in my home that they might want when I’m no longer here. Neither of them wanted to do anything so dramatic and personal! So, I’m hoping I can remember what they’ve mentioned over the years!

This strip strikes at home with me. My dad gone for 20 years that was hard on his health. My mom I looked after her for 5 years until we had to move her in with us last 3 months of her life, upon her passing I really cried. Then their household stuff we had to sell, bulky items as furniture, there are her hobbies as dolls we could not. For me what I have much easier, I have lot of paperback books I am reading, when done I will donate. The parents house is not a rental LLC license that has to be signed and dated.

I’m thinking we must have lousy taste. Whenever I’ve asked my kids and grandkids what they’d like I get that funny look that says “Absolutely nothing, we hate your stuff”.

I believe that many of us whose parents and/or sibling(s) have passed on, can easily relate to today’s comic. Have a wonderful day my friends. May the Covid avoid you and yours.

Humans age and die. Life goes on.

Nope. Lost Dad last September at the age of 93, his health deteriorated badly the last month or so. Ma is still with us, but not happy about it, health wise, she is not able to get around much at 90, (they had been married 72 years and 10 days when he died). Nope, don’t believe you’re ever ready even when you know it is for the best. As Dad said bout a year before he passed, “I’m ready to go, but I don’t think you all are ready to do without me.”

I lost my Mom when I was ten. My Dad when I was 26.

I think for many, dealing with the death of their parents – especially if the parents are elderly – is difficult not just because of the loss of a loved one, but because it brings us face to face with our own mortality.

you never will; even years or decades later!

Actually they are arguing about things that belong to NEITHER of them. Only the memories belong to them and you don’t need the physical object to evoke those memories.

I have heard it recommended that when downsizing you photograph those objects that do evoke memories and then give away the object. Digital photos take no space.

It happens to us all and you will adjust….

Like sisters and brothers. This remind me I have siblings too about 4 of them. I always loved them even when they make each other really Mad! Growl.

“Will we ever be?” Depends on the parents.

This is hitting too close to home.

Finally, reality strikes!

Never go Phil retard.

Phil is too precoccupied with this. Not only is he concerned about something that has not happened yet, he is worrying himself bald! Check out the fourth panel,

The Menendez brothers were ready.

I have really appreciated the comments on today’s FBOFW. Many have brought tears to my eyes and an appreciation for what life has given us and what eventually will be taken away. As we say in Mexico, ¡Cuídense mucho!

I remember when we were cleaning out my grandpa’s house. He’d moved to assisted living a year after grandma died, but was helping us clean out the house. He came into the living room carrying a large chrome device and said “anyone want a vibrator”. We were all quite shocked and had to suppress our laughter. Apparently that’s what his generation called Sears and Roebuck massage machines.

The only thing I wanted when my dad died was his 1946 Delta bandsaw. They just don’t make them like that any more! My brother moved into his house and got everything else, which was fine with me! He needed it, I didn’t.

Ah, what they’re truly feeling says a lot more about them than the petty squabbles <3 . I only see my mother for a couple weeks a year, if I’m lucky (ie not this past year. She’s 80 and too smart to fly 6 hours through COVID). I love my home town. But I can’t have it. And I don’t want it all to go, either. I’m an only child so I will get all the stuff, but the stuff isn’t the same. I kind of wish I had someone to lean on like they do.

You are never ready….My dad went way too soon.

Their parents aren’t dying - just moving to a new place.