My Thanks to All of You

I have returned from an event I never guessed I would ever have to attend - Sara's funeral.  It was very sad watching her husband, children and extended family hurting because there was absolutely nothing I could do to make that pain go away.  We leaned on each other for support and it felt good to laugh a little about some of the fun times we all remembered between outbreaks of tears.

One of the things I remember was the Christmas Gingerbread House we made.  A little piece of advice for you - don't ask a 15-year-old girl what she would like to do unless you are fully prepared to do it.  Have you ever laid thinly-sliced almonds across the roof of a gingerbread house?  A very tedious task, I can assure you.  Almost as bad as putting red hots on bushes made of green-tinted frosting to simulate the berries on a holly bush.  It turned out to be a work of art of which we were both very proud.  The memory is priceless to me.

At times like these we become even more thankful for our friends.  I am more blessed than I realized.  I have received many emails, sympathy cards and phone calls.  I can't tell you how much it has warmed my heart to feel your comfort.  Some of the people I have heard from since I've been home are people I haven't heard from for quite a while.  I have even heard from people through other people rather than directly.  A couple of these people for whatever reason haven't spoken to me for six months.  I appreciate their expressions of sympathy.

Many of you know that Sara was a registered nurse.  Like all the nurses I know, she had a heart for giving to other people, and this was her way of doing it.  She was a very good nurse, so I am told.  Quite obviously she was loved and appreciated by her co-workers who filled almost one half of the funeral chapel.

Our lives were enriched probably more than we realized because Sara was part of us, and it will be a hard adjustment for all of us in our own ways to pick up the pieces of what seems like an impossible-to-overcome tragedy, but with time, we will be able to accept our loss and remember the good that was Sara.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.  They have helped and will continue to help me as I work through my own grieving process.  God bless each of you.