Ready for some good news?

About 15 years ago, my mother took a job as lunch mom at the local grade school. It made her very happy to be at the same school where her granddaughter, my niece, was beginning kindergarten. She made $10/day, which she put to her electric bill.

While there, she met another lunch mom. Lisa was juggling motherhood and nightschool and took the gig to see her son during the day and help out her household with a little extra money. Despite their 20+ year age difference, my mom and Lisa became friends. After a few years, Lisa moved on to her new career as librarian. She and my mom ran into one another in town every now and again, but they drifted apart.

Lisa showed up at my mom's funeral service last Sunday and remembered how much my mother loved her cat, Ethel. She found out that Ethel died a few months ago and that my mother had recently gotten a new cat, Nora.

Lisa asked if she could take Nora! She said it would be "an honor" to repay my mother's kindness in the way she believed Mom would appreciate most. Plus, Lisa's son -- the one she took the lunch mom job to be near -- is now in college and will be moving out soon. She believes it would do her good to have a furry friend to help her ease into this new phase.

I am so relieved! I figured I'd have to take Nora, because clearly that's what my mom wanted. But I didn't want to. Nora has been through a lot -- from shelter to my mom's house, and then my mother's absence due to hospitalization and death, knocking around in that big house all by herself. And so has my own high-strung cat, Charlotte. I was so worried about the impact Nora would have on my delicate old girl.

Nora went home with Lisa last night. To a forever home. I'm so grateful for how this turned out.