Written by In the wake of a joyous (although very busy) Christmas time, my family suffered the loss of my aunt. She essentially was a 2nd mother to us and our families were very close. She was a devoted teacher in our hometown. She was also a mother, grandmother, aunt, and dear friend to us all. She was my dad’s next oldest and closest sister. She was also one of my mom’s closest friends, they talked every day. Although not a particularly sudden death, this hit us all very hard. Seeing family members in this state of grieving was very difficult, most especially my parents since there was nothing that could be done to change the outcome. For my sister and myself, the only thing we could do to help actually ended up being the simplest: just be there for them and for each other. Just to be present and let them know they are not suffering alone.
It was very difficult to motivate for my black belt training during this time. Even without the travel and family events taking up a lot of time, I’m not sure I would have wanted to. I was actually flying back to California the morning of her death. My mom had said to me “if you aren’t able to come back, its ok, Aunt Suzee would understand”. She was right. The memories we all shared when my aunt was alive gave us solace in her death. Motivation to move on and celebrate her life. Aunt Suzee wouldn’t want us to be “down in the dumps”, she would want us to carry on. This then motivated me to get back on track with my training and continue on for her and the rest of my family. I did, of course, come back and I’m very happy I did. But even if I was unable to, that would still be ok. My aunt really would understand and she would want me to continue my training.
