My daughter had a dream of my dad-in-law. We were all in the hospital room. My dad-in-law was sitting on the hospital bed and crying. My mom-in-law was sitting beside of my dad-in-law rubbing his back and comforting him. I went to him and hugged him, then my husband and daughter followed. My daughter saw two buttons next to my dad-in-law. The buttons were blue and orange. My daughter pressed the blue button for my dad-in-law and he stopped crying. Next she pressed the orange button for him and it made him feeling happy. Then she woke up.  

***

In the afternoon I received a phone call from my mom-in-law. She said she already went to pick up the ashes and released the ashes at the family graveyard. She said she felt relieved. She also felt my dad-in-law is now feeling happy. I agree with her. My dad-in-law is now released and feeling happy. Happy journey back to the spirit world, my dad-in-law. We all love you all the time. We all miss you and wish you are with us. You know all of that, right? I look forward to seeing you again when my time has come to leave this physical world. Until my very last day, I will live my days fully on this physical realm. I promise you that I will do my best to fulfil my life missions on this Earth.

I had been sick for the past two days. The very first thing I did right after I woke up was to pray for my good health. I didn’t want to take a nap in the daytime. I wanted to keep being healthy so that I could finish up my to-do-list items. I was okay in the morning, but around 1 p.m., I started feeling sick again. I ended up taking a 2-hour nap again. I woke up with a phone call from my mom-in-law. She said my dad-in-law’s body has been cremating. She would be able to pick the ashes up at the mortuary office tomorrow. I asked her if she had somebody to go to the mortuary with her. She said she would be alright to go there alone. I wish I could be there for her to support her.

It was Sunday. I still feel sick with allergy-like symptoms from the smoke. I have many things in my to-do-list but could not do anything because of feeling sick. I needed to take a 3-hour nap in the afternoon again. It was 2-days straight. I hate being sick. I really hope I will be healthy tomorrow so that I will accomplish all the to-do-list items. I thought of my late dad-in-law. He must have been feeling the same way as I am feeling right now. He wrote down many items in his projects. He wanted to accomplish many items before he departed.

***

I noticed my daughter’s school is way advanced. Even though she is still at the 6^th grade, her math and social studies are for the first year at the high school in Japan and her science is for the third year of the junior high school.

I am still feeling exhausted. My eyes sting and itchy. I have been suffering from runny nose and sneeze. My husband’s cousin mentioned about the smoke from California wild fire. The news says many people have been suffering from allergy-like symptoms from the smoke. I needed to take a 3-hour nap in the afternoon.

At night I attended the Sunday Service hoping to receive any messages from my dad-in-law. But I was not picked tonight.

My husband got back to his routine work shift from today. He must have been still exhausted from the trip. I pray for his safety. And I appreciate him for going to work to support us.

My daughter has been intensely working on her school assignments. In the afternoon my husband received a phone call from my mom-in-law. The mortuary office was ready to cremate the body, but the doctor has not sign the necessary document. The cremation might happen on next Monday. We were all surprised for the news. Last time they told us it might take 2 weeks or so.

In the evening at 5 p.m., I talked with my Japanese friend on the phone. It was very comforting to talk with her. She told me that she had read the news about Navajo Nation in Japanese television news. I was surprised to hear that. They reported Navajo Nation has been having many deaths due to Covid and there were long waiting line for cremation.

I woke up in my own bed. I slept well last night.

It was a busy day after the trip. I washed all the clothes including all the sheets and blankets that we used during the trip. I washed shoes and sandals. I wiped off all the suitcase and cooler boxes with Clorox wipes. I also wiped off my car at the door knobs, steering wheel, and interior along with the trunk.

I noticed I had grown white hairs in these several days. My last hair dye was on May 10^th. I didn’t have outstanding white hair for the past three months. I recall my mom told me once that when she dealt with somebody’s funeral, she grew many white hair from stress. It happened to me. It has been really stressful days. My daughter helped me for henna hair dye. I appreciate her kind support.

In the evening my husband and I got a big argument.

At night I did a free flow mediation with the help of HemiSync CD. During the mediation, I talked to my dad-in-law in spirit. I shed lots of tears. I thanked him a lot for everything what he had done to me. He helped me a lot for bringing me in to Navajo culture. We started off our relationship from friendship and it changed into a family of dad-in-law and daughter-in-law. My dad-in-law often talked about starting a business together. We wanted to invite Japanese customers to our home site and share Navajo culture and teaching with them. I apologized him that we could not make it happen while he was alive. He told me he would support from spirit world by sending me the right people for making our dream happen.

I could slept well last night. I am glad that I could sleep through until 7:30 a.m.

We promised my mom-in-law that we would come back for the funeral once the creation is done.

I am glad we could drive back home safely.

I woke up at 4 a.m. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t. I sneaked out from bed trying not to wake my family up and went to kitchen. I started cooking mutton stew. Around 8 a.m., my family woke up and came to kitchen. My husband and I placed all the medical equipment that my dad-in-law rented from the hospital on the truck bed. My mom-in-law needed to return them as soon as possible to avoid being charged the late return penalty.

My mom-in-law needed to go back to the mortuary office again for the appointment at 10 a.m. On their appointment of yesterday, the office people informed her to bring lots of necessary documents for the cremation procedure. She was upset that the office people didn’t tell her about the information in advance. It takes 40 minutes one way from her house to the office. She needed to go there twice, which could have been saved to just one trip.

We arrived at the mortuary 10 minutes earlier than the appointment time. The office seemed to be quite busy with many different families. The energy of the mortuary was deeply low, because they kept many dead bodies waiting for their turn to be created in the same building. Also there were so many sad family members of the deceased person. It was so heavy vibration.  

Yesterday when my mom-in-law came to the mortuary office, she expected her granddaughters to go into the office with her. However, they both refused to go in. They waited in the truck. I was shocked. If I had known this, I would have come with her. I felt sorry for her that she needed to go through the mortuary paperwork all by herself. The mystery solved. That was why she looked drained after she came back from the mortuary office yesterday.

The female worker was nice and thoughtful. I liked her polite attitude. She handed a bunch of papers to my mom-in-law and asked her to go through the details to check for any typos. Right after both of my mom-in-law started checking the documents, they found lots of typos. The death day was typed as august 30^th 2021, which is the future date. The correct date was August 20^th 2021. The death time was wrong in am and pm. The family name had a typo. The female worker apologized to my mom-in-law on behalf of her coworker. She said the office just hired a new worker and all the mistakes were made by the new worker. I almost laughed out loud when the worker confirmed the name of my dad-in-law’s dad’s name as Jam. His correct name was Sam. The office worker said she went through some peculiar names before. She had taken care of a woman whose name was “Bluetrain” and other woman whose name was “Daughter.” She said whenever she encountered a peculiar name, she tries to stay calm and confirm with the family member without making fun of it.

Before we came to the office, some people told us that the cremation should be done quickly. Thus, we all were hoping the cremation would be done preferably today or tomorrow so that we would be able to perform a funeral on Tuesday or Wednesday. The female worker told us currently due to the Covid-19, the cremation would take much longer days than we thought. She shared her personal story with us. Her husband passed away in last November due to Covid. Even though she was a worker at the mortuary office, they made it as quick as possible but it took them for 2 weeks to cremate his body. She also told us there were many people passed away from Covid related reasons. My dad-in-law’s cause of death was also recognized as Covid-related.

Before we left the house, my mom-in-law was feeling scared of the total amount of these procedure. But she had a good amount of cash in hand. The next morning after my dad-in-law passed away, one of his nephews visited my mom-in-law and handed a thick envelope that was a donation for the funeral. After the nephew left, she counted the money and amazed of the generous amount. The Navajo Nation had a support system for the cremation fee. My mom-in-law could pay off the remainder fee in cash.

The office worker suggested my mom-in-law to identify my dad-in-law’s body, but she refused to do so. My husband was willing to do so on behalf of his mom. He was escorted by two female workers side by side and went into the room where all the dead bodies were kept in the huge refrigerator. According to my husband, my dad-in-law was all naked and in a zipped bag. Because of the Covid, the workers needed to get rid of clothes. When the worker unzipped the top part of the bag, my husband could see my dad-in-law’s face and shoulder. He was very skinny and looked like a little boy’s body. The good thing was though, he looked relaxed. His face expression looked like he was little bit smiling. My husband wanted to touch his dad’s body, but he was not allowed. He almost cried but held the tears back.

Right before my husband came back to our room, I sensed his sadness. Because my husband could not shed tears, I started shedding lots of tears. I still think I cried on behalf of my husband.

After we left the mortuary office, we stopped by at the medical equipment rental store and returned all the items that my dad-in-law rented.

On the way back home, I slept in the truck. I was surrounded by sad energy and exhausted.

We were planning to stay until Friday. However, we at this moment don’t know when they create the body. So, we decided to go back home tomorrow.

In the evening we went to the grocery store and bought 5 small cakes to cerebrate my husband’s birthday one day early. His birthday is actually tomorrow, but we will be driving all day tomorrow. My daughter, mom-in-law, my brother-in-law’s daughter and I sang a birthday song for my husband. we all wished my dad-in-law was there with us for the birthday cerebration.

Last night my brother-in-law and his wife went back home, but their daughter stayed with my mom-in-law for another several nights. My brother-in-law’s first daughter came back to the house to support my mom-in-law.

In the morning my mom-in-law had the appointment at the mortuary office about my dad-in-law’s cremation. My dad-in-law passed away at the Friday night and the mortuary office was closed on weekends. My brother-in-law’s two daughters went to the mortuary office with my mom-in-law.

My family and I went to the family graveyard and prepared for the funeral. There were many sage brushes and cacti around the graves and we needed to pull them and make the area clean for the funeral visitors. Once we started working on the yard work, my mom-in-law’s sister joined to help us. I hadn’t talked to her for several years, so it was good to have opportunities to talk with her. It was a hard work. it took the four of us all morning to finish the yard work. By the time we finished the work, we suffered from sore muscle.

On the way back from the mortuary office, my mom-in-law called us and told us to meet up at the Denny’s for lunch. My mom-in-law looked sad and exhausted. She didn’t talk much after we came back home.  

We woke up in the hotel room. Sadness for losing my dad-in-law still stayed with us. We were sad and exhausted. We didn’t feel like doing anything. We just wanted to relax and rest in bed for a while. The hotel served the hotel guests a cold breakfast bag. It contained a Jimmy Dean’s breakfast sandwich, a bagel, a pack of cream cheese, a chocolate muffin, and an orange juice. I was amazed for their generous amount for the breakfast. We checked out the hotel around 11 a.m. and headed to my mom-in-law’s house.

My brother-in-law told us last night that he and his family would leave around noon. My mom-in-law told us we could stay at the trailer house after my brother-in-law and his family left. When we arrived there after noon, they were still there.

In the afternoon we had some visitors. The first visitors were my dad-in-law’s sisters. My dad-in-law had 5 siblings; 2 brothers and 3 sisters. His 2 brothers always passed away. My mom-in-law told about the last moment of my dad-in-law in details. My dad-in-law’s death was confirmed at 10:22 p.m., and his death certificate shows his departure time as 22:22. It really sounds like him. He had been contributing a lot to establish peace as the Navajo traditional peacemaker. The number “2” means “peace.” Also his life path number was “22” which is a master number being a teacher. I am sure he is satisfied to have his departure time as “22:22.” And, interestingly at this moment when I am writing this story, it is August 22^nd and it adds up another “22.”

My brother-in-law left the house around 3 p.m. My family could finally get in the trailer house. We needed to start cleaning the trailer house because they left as it was without cleaning. Around 4 p.m., my husband received a phone call from his brother. They got a flat tire on the road where was located about 1 hour away from their parents’ house. It was weird that even though his car was still new of just 2 years old, the car didn’t carry a spare tire. My husband and my brother-in-law’s first daughter went to rescue them. They didn’t come back until 8 p.m. I thought my dad-in-law made this accident for this brothers. My husband and his brother were not close. They seldom see each other. Every time when they see each other, they don’t hug or even greet. His family and my family usually don’t greet. It is very weird and uncomfortable. This unexpected accident made the brothers get close. They talked and laughed each other while processing on fixing the flat tire. I guess my dad-in-law was happy to see his sons getting close for this accident.

At night my brother-in-law’s first daughter brought her boyfriend to the house. My mom-in-law wanted to relax the night together with a campfire. My husband built a fire and we all 6 people sat down surrounded by the campfire. Later on my husband’s cousin joined us so that we were 7 people. We all talked nice things about my dad-in-law.

It was a busy day. I personally am not good at dealing with a crowded people and I was exhausted. My daughter shares the personality with me and she too was exhausted. At night she got an allergic reaction. Her both eyes got all red and itchy. She got bloody nose. After a long relaxing shower, she got recovered from the allergic symptoms.