This isn't a post I ever thought I'd have to do or want to do, for that matter but this blog is about family, love and more so I can't leave this post out. January was a strange month for me, I unfortunately had 2 deaths within one week of each other. The most shocking was a really good friend of mine I met at Church, Tracy.
This is Tracy with 3 of her 5 kids over Christmas break. I stole the pic off her blog which I hope her family won't mind because this is how I remember Tracy, always happy and surrounded by her kids. In my church, we have a sister companionship called Visiting Teaching. It's a program where 2 ladies are assigned to keep in touch with other ladies each month and administer to any needs they have, it's a great program. Tracy was my VT and I was hers which isn't usually how companionship's are setup, but it was a perfect thing for both of us and our busy schedules. Tracy's daughters all dance at the same studio as my girls. Every Thursday morning Tracy and I would send in our pre-schoolers and we would catch up and talk and talk and talk. Tracy was also starting to understand the importance of removing toxins from her home which our text messages would get quite lengthy as she was shopping at stores needing to know if she was doing good or needed to put items back. She took to using natural products and even attended meetings with me to learn more. We became awesome friends.
Long story short, Tracy had been diagnosed with a tumor on her liver. For those who don't know, having surgery on your liver is extremely serious, just as much as open heart surgery, it's also a surgery that has the most blood loss. When the surgeons opened Tracy up, not only did they realize that more of her liver would have to be cut out, but her gall bladder and spleen were also covered in tumors and would also be removed. The tumors were biopsied and she was diagnosed at the age of 42 with stage 4 cancer.
Tracy made it through the surgery, the nurses commented the next morning how well her attitude was towards the diagnoses and was even up walking around. She suddenly took a turn for the worse later that day and it was discovered she was having internal bleeding. The surgeons rushed her back in to the O.R. where Tracy sadly bled to death on the operating table. She didn't have enough platelets left over from the original surgery to clot her blood.
There are so many strange, but clearly guided moves by our Heavenly Father that go into this story but I won't go into all the details. Tracy's husband and 5 kids are extremely blessed to have her as a guardian angel. EVERYONE who knows Tracy believes she was called back home on such short notice for a much bigger purpose that we won't know till we meet again. Tracy was an amazing missionary here on this earth, she will be so sadly missed but I feel her presence from time to time, it's amazing.
I was so honored to be asked to help with her funeral. As hard as it was to see her kids and husband along with her parents and siblings all crying, I will never forget turning the church into a huge "Tracy Memory" and serving them all a homemade meal after they got back from the cemetery. Her family welcomed all of us "kitchen staff" in to reminisce and to tell us childhood stories about Tracy, it was a long day but a day I'll never forget.
I love you T and I will miss you horribly, you weren't a friend I was expecting to lose while here on this earth, our conversations were always such a stress reliever for me and nothing beats a great friendship!
Exactly one week to the moment after Tracy's passing, I was informed my grandma had passed away. It was so strange that when I learned of Tracy's passing, I was sitting at my mirror doing my hair/makeup and when my g'ma passed, I was sitting in the same spot, doing the same thing at the same time when I got the notice my g'ma had passed. Coincidence? Sure. But still bizarre.
The picture above is from the last time my family had made it back to Utah to visit family, this was summer of 2010. Baby R had no issues sitting on her "gg's" lap, no fussing, no crying for mom, she was a perfect angel, it was also the first time gg had met Baby R:)
Mr. D took our photo w/gg right before we left:) I will NEVER forget, as we were fixing to leave, we told G to go tell gg goodbye, and as a child w/Autism, he doesn't show a lot of affection but at that moment, he walked over to gg, leaned in and kissed her shoulder. I don't know if my g'ma understood the significance of that moment, but I was screaming for joy inside because he'd NEVER done that before!
G'ma never missed mine or my kids birthdays, every year a card showed up in the mail with her signature piece of gum that has been in the envelope since ever I could remember:) It was so fitting that at my g'mas funeral, when we got to the cemetery, after the prayer and dedication of the grave was done, my aunt passed out a piece of stick gum to us all and we were able to put the gum all over her casket, it was such a fitting way to say goodbye:)
G'ma was an amazing 97 years old at her passing, she definitely got her fair share of a long life! G'ma lost her husband 59 years ago and has basically been a widow all these years. I'm so happy she was able to stay so long here on this earth, but even happier that she FINALLY gets to reunite with my g'pa I never met as well as her siblings, parents etc... What better of a reunion could you ask for?
Having 2 deaths happen in one week is a bit draining but, because of my faith, I know that famlies can be together forever and even though I have to say goodbye to Tracy and my g'ma here on this earth, I will get to see them again one day and catch up and that feeling is AWESOME!
2 comments:
So sorry to hear about your friend and your grandma. My thoughts and prayers are with your family and your friends family! Its especially good to have the knowledge of the gospel to help us get through these difficult times!
So beautiful. I hope that somehow both Tracy and Grandma will be able to know of your beautiful tributes to them. Clearly, they both loved you just as you loved them.
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