My Mother...

This is my family, yes, I'm the stone-faced one, second from the left. My father passed away 16 years ago. On Tuesday amid fireworks and celebration for the 24th of July my mother slipped to the other side to join him. So now there are two. But that count is a little off. Mom was grandmother to 11 and great-grandmother to nearly 11 more, Luke is due in August.
Words become incredibly inefficient at portraying feelings at a difficult time such as this. She suffered much in the last months of her life. She was forced to do many hard things. She had to endure the confining space of an MRI machine, drink barium on more than one occassion, have a port placed for chemo therapy and be strapped down, pinned to a board like a butterfly to endure radiation treatments. And not once did she complain. She did what I have seen her do everyday of her life; she "pulled on her big girl panties" and she did what she had to do.
Living is hard work and so is that of dying. Having these last months with her were bitter-sweet.  If there is a blessing of a terminal illness than it is that you are granted time with a purpose. The questions you ask are more tender and the answers more profound. For the last 5 months I have been her companion, her cheerleader, her soccer mom (for all the driving her and there), her advocate and her care giver. I will miss her.

A celebration of her life will be held Sunday July29th from 6-8 p.m. at Myer's in Ogden. Her funeral is 10 a.m. at 720 Nancy Drive Monday morning. She will be laid to rest next to her eternal companion in the Baggs Cemetary.