The mundane tasks after the passing of a beloved companion.
I just finished responding to everyone who offered condolences to me with my loss of Voodoo. It took me a bit to even have the ability to read the comments, much less respond. I am a horrible typist and trying to do it through tears, well, that just makes my typing that much more unreadable. Given the kind responses, I wanted to know how appreciated they were, and with this post, I wanted to share another aspect of the aftermath of Voodoo's loss.
Like more than a few people, we have set up a "smart house". When my husband comes home from work, our Alexa in the den announces, "Voodoo, Marigny, Laveau, Zatanna, Daddy's home!". The nighttime routine is somewhat similar, with the announcement stating: "Voodoo, b-e-d time. Da Baby (Zatanna) time to go bed with Daddy. Laveau, let's go to bed. Marigny, let's go nite-nite." as it turns on and off various lights throughout the house. Those were announcements that had to be changed. My husband did so before we left the hospital. Still, that first night, I of course, recognized Voodoo's name was gone and I just cried. Either way, name in, name out, I was destined to sob.
Also like many people, especially in this group, we subscribe to various groups and shopping places, 1800petmeds, Chewy, tracker ID sites, and other places. I had to go to each of those places and update Voodoo's status. Some places it was easier to do than others. A few I am still trying to navigate how to make the changes needed. However, I wanted to share this story from my experience from Chewy.com.
I did the live chat because Voodoo's monthly medicine had arrived a few days before his passing. I never even opened the box. I wanted to know if we could send it back. The representative expressed his sympathy for our loss, and credited our account immediately. I also explained I couldn't change Voodoo's status to "deceased". I couldn't bring myself to delete his profile and understood if he had to do so, as much as I didn't want to keep getting emails about "sales for Voodoo!" He went into the system and changed Voodoo's status to "passed". That worked for me. I thanked him and went onto the next sites to take to my sad, grim task. Two days later, I received a beautiful floral arrangement...it was from the representative at Chewy! It was one of the nicest things ever. So, in my sadness, I also wanted to share this incredible act of kindness.
Again, thank you all who offered condolences. It really was very much appreciated!
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