Good byes are hard

 We had one on April 19th when Derek's mom, Marie Smith, passed away in the night and Kevin found her gone in the morning.  She had slept in another room because she had a bad cough and didn't want to keep him awake.  What a sad thing for him to find her gone.  Of course we know she is not gone forever, but just gone from him and all the rest of us until that time when reunions happen in the future.  She didn't want a funeral as usual.  They just had a viewing and then a graveside for family and close friends.  Kevin gave a sweet talk there and they had a white dove ceremony which was really beautiful. We joined them in a very nice lunch at the church afterwards also.  I'm so sorry for Derek to have lost yet another important family member; Lenae, his brother Trevor and now his mom.  She was such a sweet lady and so good to the grand kids.  They are going to feel a huge void yet again.  We are all going to miss her every ready hugs and smile.  

I have to say here too that another passing touched my heart recently.  I sat by a lady at one chemo session that had been down a long hard road with pancreatic cancer.  I found out in our conversation that she had been a building inspector that Paul had worked with.  She had lost her husband quite early and became an inspector to support herself and her kids for the rest of her life.  She said she was doing this last round of chemo just because her kids wanted her to try one more time.  She said she was ready to be done if this one didn't make a difference. Her kids were all grown up and doing well now and she was ready to go and be with her husband again.  When I saw her obituary in the paper, it touched my heart knowing she had fought the good fight, but was now reunited with him again.