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"Ohio has been as hot, hot, hot as everywhere else and the air quality is toxic. Other than that, it is a lovely state. But ONE day, one and only day in a long, long time, the humidity lifted, the temperature lowered, the breezes blew, the sky was blue and even the cooperative clouds were pure white and fluffy. I wanted to take advantage of this situation of course, and have a backyard beach day. If I&amp;#039;m in the sun and my eyes are closed, no matter my location, I am on the beach. Not to be too Sarah Palinish about it, but I can hear the ocean if I&amp;#039;m face to the sun on a downtown building&amp;#039;s cement steps. I pulled the cushions (Mom&amp;#039;s cushions) out from under the squiggly roof over the patio. I put the pillow on the chair (Mom&amp;#039;s chair from her &amp;quot;coffee porch&amp;quot;) and prepared to sit down. The last years of Mom&amp;#039;s life took about everything from her, but one of the losses went through to the core. Mom couldn&amp;#039;t sit out in the sun. Sitting in the sun was Mom&amp;#039;s Nirvana. Dad&amp;#039;s too. Sitting in the sun is one of the things my family did best. But the heat got to Mom, and the walk down the hall through the kitchen to the deck got too long. Sometimes we&amp;#039;d go out there with her wheelchair but that was not comfortable for her and finally, enough became enough. I grabbed more pillows from under the overhang. I pulled up a chair for Mom next to mine. I closed my eyes and tilted my face upward. I pictured her doing the same. Eyes closed, there we were in our favorite position, sitting side by side in the sun. Grief is no day at the beach, but this one day, it was. D.G. Fulford is the author of Designated Daughter: The Bonus Years with Mom, written with her mother Phyllis Greene. She is also the co-founder of TheRememberingSite.org. You can find her at DGFulford.com. Photo credit: Marcia Smilack "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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