Sad News Indeed....

Well...one never knows how or where to start sometimes...so I am just going to start here. My dear MIL Ginny passed away from her brain cancer shortly after we rang in the New Year. This was my "Proverbs 31" example...how to be a wife and mother. She taught me all of the things that my own mother never taught me in life. How to cook, how to clean...how to make homemade noodles...what the value of family is...how to love someone even if you don't like what they do or how they act, etc...

She was the epitome' of the word "Mom". Heck!- even her co-workers at the last job she held at Carnival Foods Deli, called her either Mom or Grandma! If you called in and asked for the Deli, you had to say "Is Grandma there?" because if you asked for Ginny, they had to stop and think for a minute who you were calling for.

There were some funny moments that we shared over the years...some crazy moments..some sad and serious moments and all of those other "Mom-ism" moments that a daughter and her mother would share. And yes, she treated me just like Sue. Like I was her daughter, not her Daughter-in-Law. Sue and I would joke around over the years about who she liked best, just like two siblings would, and we both would always say that she liked "Donnie" best! (My husband and Sue's brother) :)

Once you had met Ginny, there was a unique bond of the heart that you shared and it seemed as if you had know each other your whole lives. I actually had the honor and privilege of having know Ginny for half of my life. I was 40 when she moved on to go live with Jesus; and Donnie and I had met just after I had turned 20. I turned 41 on February 8th, and I missed the card from Ginny that always told me she loved me this year :(

We would tease each other from time to time too and when she would get sassy she would point her index finger at me, and I would always say "Calm down, Virginia!"...then we would crack up laughing or smile and she would say "Oh, you!" :)

The grandkids all called her "G"...because really she was so special that she didn't even need a full name, kinda like when the music artist Prince decided to use a symbol for his name... the great-grandkids all started calling her "GG"...and That she was.. a "good gal"...GG :)

I am sure that there will be many moments when I will miss Ginny over the years to come, especially on holidays, birthdays (she was a firecraker baby- born on July 4th)... familt gatherings. I am just glad that during the last days of her life we were able to have those conversations that mean the most... the ones about life, love, family and our personal relationship with God/Jesus. I can rest confidently in the fact that she loved the Lord and has accepted Him into her life years ago and knew where she was going. I was able to re-assure her nefore she passed on, that NOTHING can EVER separate us from that LOVE and she died peacefully in her sleep.

I had to laugh (and felt bad about it at first)...as Donnie and I made it to Sue's before the guys from the funeral home showed up to take her. Ginny had told Sue that she wanted me to have the diamond earrings that she wore everyday because they were special to her and she wanted to pass them down to me as a gift. She used to tease me all the time about leaving them in her ears as her cancer progressed, and she told me that she was going to die with them in and when I went to reach down to take them out of her ears, she was going to reach up and point her index finger at me and say "Gotcha!"...we had more than just a few laughs over that one :) Well, Sue took them out a day or two before she passed away to keep to give to me. When Donnie and I got there and went into the bedroom to pay our respects, the dentures that she wore had shifted out of her mouth slightly and her head was tilted a bit. The minute I walked into the bedroom, a combination of tears ands laughter overcame my body at the same time. Tears for the loss of someone that I deeply love...and laughter because it looked like she was laying there, while somehow still saying "Gotcha!"

Virginia...you were truly a gem that will be missed dearly, everyday of our lives...make sure that you are helping Jesus to put our room next to yours in Heaven!

Love, Shannon (Donnie, Tiffany & Paige) <3