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

Family Matters...

It's been a little while now and we have been going to Donnie's sister Sue's house to visit with my dear MIL Ginny. She has good days and bad days and I am sure "everything else" in between days too. The other night I decided to cut her toenails, give her a foot massage and paint her toenails a pretty shade of shimmery pink. She looked at me and told me how good it felt and it almost made me cry. It was such a small and simple act of kindness, and I didn't think anything of it at the time. I just knew that she couldn't cut them herself because she was too weak. I love her, so I decided to just "do it", as Nike says. As she sat there, just relaxing with her eyes closed, I started to think about all of the things that we take for granted,and how even the simpliest acts of kindness can affect our emotions and general well-being. Then I started to think about how wonderful a world we would be living in this side of Heaven if we all treated one another with the love of Christ and not as the rest of the world treats us. Never forget that family does matter...especially those family matters of the heart...like scratching your child's back at bedtime, telling your family that you love them, or painting toenails and foot massages! :)

When it Rains ...it sometimes POURS!!!

Well...as a Christian who loves the Lord and believes that Jesus is her Savior, brother that she never had, and best friend...I sometimes struggle when people remind me that we are to THANK GOD FOR ALL THINGS. I know what this means, and in my heart I know that this statement is true and just. But sometimes it just mixes with the humanness of this side of Heaven and leaves my heart and head a bit heavy...like this week.

Donnie's mom, who was doing so good after her cancer treatments, is in the hospital currently with what they thought might be pneumonia. She was having trouble swallowing and they thought it might have been from her meds. They scoped her throat and did a CT Scan and nothing was wrong. So they decided to do an MRI of her entire throat and head. Donnie called me this morning, teary, to let me know that his sister and mom were waiting on her Oncologist to get there, because his sister, who is a nurse and the radiologist both stated that it look like she may have brain cancer. Donnie said that she had started to say things a few weeks ago that didn't go together and didn't make sense...I am waiting on a call back again now for further confirmation.

This comes on top of me, being off work due to sickness and having to take Paige to the doctor, who was not feeling well. (You can believe that she got the FluMist while we were there!)--- We are both on meds at this point. I had to go to the ER yesterday morning because I had a fever and couldn't breath... and wound up having to get a chest x-ray and a breathing treatment for Acute Bronchitis. They sent me home with an antibiotic (and I am allergic to just about every one out there!) and a steroid. After 2 doses of both, today, sitting at work, I break out into a full flushed face, neck, chest and throat, with a VERY red rash. I called my Doctor's office.....(3 1/2 hours ago...hellooo!!!????) and they said to quit taking both meds and they would send my info back to the doctor and call me back...would that be BEFORE or AFTER you close for the day???!!! God love 'em! I know they are busy, but you would think that an allergic reaction to medication would somehow seem important to someone else besides me.

I know that Paige and I will get well...and no matter what happens with Donnie's mom, that she will be brought to a place of wellness too...even if that means that she is soon to be made whole again and be staring into my brother's face and surrounded by his loving arms...it just gets so hard at times, especially times like this, when everyone is sick including yourself...to thank God for the deck that we have been handed as of late. (I wish I could find the owner, I would hand back the deck!) But I will once again trust in the promises that God has made very clear... that He will NEVER leave or forsake us... that His love is unconditional... that He is ALWAYS with us, even to the end...and that He WILL made us whole and new..in His perfect timing. For these things and much, much more...I am truly THANKFUL. Maybe it's just my job to cling to Him right now and crawl into His lap and let Him love on me...so that I can feel well enough to love on the rest of my family...