The Rainbow Won't Wait

By Lisa V. Proulx

A dying mother's advice for the obstinate daughter she is leaving behind.

When the author lost her mother in 2006, she could have been a better daughter. She tried to be the daughter that her mother wanted and needed at this time of sorrow but she didn't know how to be that person.

In a collection of short pieces of advice, the author has put together words of comfort and wisdom that her Cherokee mother gave her over the years. She never knew at the time, that this advice would help her as she took care of a dying parent. It also served as a catalyst to help her regain her footing after a series of tragedies following her mother's death, left her in a crippling, suicidal depression for three years.

A story of hope, inspiration and how a briar of a child became the flower that her mother always dreamed of...but died before she got a chance to see her bloom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lisa V. Proulx
• Release date: Jan 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781465861726

Lisa V. Proulx

Lisa walks the fine line between Heaven and Hell, writing tales of horror and unspeakable fear to inspirational stories that will uplift and motivate your spirit. She believes the world hinges on both good and evil and her stories reflect both the dark and the light. She also writes non-fiction and erotic romance with a rock and roll edge under her pen name Veronica Moreau. Lisa is the author of six books, including The Rainbow Won’t Wait, which is an inspirational tribute to her mother Victoria whom she lost to cancer in 2006. It is her desire to become a motivational speaker and to heal others with her words. She has raised Rottweilers for 15 years and is a former belly dancer. She is also a columnist and feature writer for her hometown newspaper. She is a member of Toastmasters.

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The Rainbow Won't Wait

Lisa V. Proulx

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The Rainbow Won’t Wait

Copyright © 2012 Lisa V. Proulx

Cover Design by Lisa V. Proulx and Steve Barnes

Smashwords Edition

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The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow but the rainbow won’t wait while you do the work

Dedications

For my mother Victoria who brought me into this world

My Rottweiler Kurgan who has kept me alive in it

My niece Shelley who not only made my mother’s life a joy but made her passing one of comfort

Steve, my inspiration. Thank you for your constant love, support and understanding. You are truly the wind beneath my wings.

All of our lives we are given advice from our mothers. Some good and we take it, some bad, we ignore it and some just plain silly, and we don't understand it.

Sometimes it takes a lifetime to figure it all out and sometimes we never do. However, I think I have a pretty good grasp on it and so among these pages are just some of the words of wisdom, advice and comfort from my mother Victoria.

My mother was a soft spoken and gentle Southern woman who was part Cherokee and carried with her the patience of a saint. I used to describe her as a summer breeze. My father on the other hand, was a loud and charming French Canadian who although one of my best friends was a thunderstorm compared to her gentle way.

From 2006 to 2010, I suffered more heartache and pain then a human should be allowed to endure. I have found comfort in the advice that my parents left me and with the love of my friends, neighbors and my beloved Rottweiler Kurgan, I have made it through. I have survived.

My parents are no longer on this side of heaven, but their words of love and wisdom still linger with me and I hope will reside inside me for the rest of my life. I am grateful and blessed for having chosen them.

Here are just some of the sage words of advice I was given in my life by my mother...there are many more.

May you find comfort here as well.

I was blessed to be raised by wonderful parents. Parents who saw the good in people and in life. I was raised to be compassionate, kind and loving and I can honestly say that empathy is my greatest strength.

To make a difference in another person's life fills me with a reward like no other. I feel good, as if I am doing what I was put here to do and I would rather hurt myself than to hurt another human being.

I find myself getting sad when I feel that an injustice has been committed against another. Lack of respect for the elderly or disabled. No compassion for the homeless or unemployed. Basic cruelty and unkindness toward another causes me much sadness and makes me strive even harder to be a better person.

When you look at an elderly person, it is easy to see the old skin, the sad eyes and the mental deterioration that some are forced to endure but do you know what I see? I see myself. I see every loved one that I have ever seen age or grow weary and die. I see a person who was once filled with life and love and experiences probably not much different from mine.

The body is the only thing that grows old and withers and dies, the spirit...the soul…is what I see and respond to. I treat others as though I know them and love them already.

I hope that one day when I look back on my life I can be proud. Proud of the way I treated others, blessed by the lives I have touched, thankful for the ones who have touched mine and grateful having had the life at all.

TIMELINE OF PAIN

September 2005...ended an 11 year relationship with B

October 2005...ran into high school sweetheart R/reunited

November 2005...move to Virginia with R/only half hour away from farm

November 2005...Clutch goes out in Jeep on bridge into Virginia during rush hour Friday night traffic

December 2005...my beloved champion Rottweiler Lucy died suddenly

December 2005...noticed something wrong with Ma/jaundiced, dark urine, white stools

January 2006...took Ma to doctor, he is very concerned

January 2006...Ma had CT Scan/found large black mass in abdomen and two spots on liver

January 2006...biopsy performed/Frederick Memorial Hospital

January 2006...plastic stent inserted to hold back the tumor

February 2006...biopsy comes back unrevealing

February 2006...another biopsy is performed/University of Maryland Hospital, Baltimore

February 2006...stent breaks from the rapid growth of massive tumor

February 2006...another stent is inserted/this one breaks too

February 2006...metal stent inserted

February 2006...biopsy reveals cancer of the bile duct/Ma given three months to live/I become her full time caretaker/Hospice is called

March 17, 2006...celebrate Ma’s last birthday/mine is day after hers

April 2006...ma goes into coma, lasts about a week/wakes up/cannot speak

April 30, 2006...Ma passes away peacefully in her bedroom surrounded by love

May 2, 2006...Ma cremated

May 5, 2006...Ma’s memorial service at church/brother and his youngest daughter don’t go/R a no show too

May 2006...Pay movers to move furniture from Virginia into farm that I now own/house riddled with problems/needs massive repairs

June 4, 2006 (three weeks after Ma passes away)…R drops me off in driveway of farm, says he’ll be back in an hour…never returns

June 2006...oldest niece graduates high school/I am not invited

July 2006...still no word from R/I am frantic and sick with worry

July 2006...drive to Fredericksburg, Virginia to look for R/found his van at former girlfriend’s house/cried all the way home

August 2006...brother and his children whom I helped raise sell property attached to my farm

August 2006...four massive trees fall onto house and do thousands of dollars worth of damage/broke deck in half/lights, windows, and courtyard destroyed

September 2006...roof caves in on one side in family room/floods heavily with each rain

September 2006...talking to B again/wants to try to work things out

September 2006...brother and family gone/new owners of his property tear down Daddy’s barn and my brother’s home/I am devastated and cannot stop crying

September 2006...found snakes in the house/scared to go to sleep

November 4, 2006...found out that B married another woman/thought we were trying to work it out

November 4, 2006...found out R was in town/no call/no explanation/nothing

November 4, 2006...I came undone

Table of Contents

We Are All Dying

You Learn More by Listening Than You Do By Talking

Always Put the Knives Away Before You Go To Bed

Always Drive Behind the Snow Plow

Loving Someone Is Never the Wrong Thing to Do

There Is No Shame in Falling…The Shame Is In Staying There

If You Feel Insane, Do Something Normal

Don’t Cut Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face

Everyone Goes Insane At Least Once A Day

People Who Don’t Have Jobs Don’t Permanents (in their hair)

Everyone Has a Best Friend

Never Take Advice from Someone Until You See What They Have

Don’t Work Yourself out Of a Job

A Man Doesn’t Care What the Plate Looks Like As Long As There Is Food on It

In Love You Want To Be Last Not First

It’s Only Money

If You Eat the Right Foods You Will Never Be Hungry

Be Careful What You Say To Others

The Work Will Wait While You Show the Child the Rainbow but the Rainbow Won’t Wait While You Do the Work

Everything Will Be Okay

We Are All Dying

How depressing a thought but in reality how true this is. The moment we are born, we begin to die.

When we speak of someone who is terminally ill and we suggest they make amends with friends and loved ones, why