Joy

I’ve wanted to get into a new blogging habit, because keeping in touch with family and friends IS important to me. Too many life circumstances, and my emotions twirling at hurricane speed, have been conspiring against me. We’re working toward discovering what our “normal” life is now meant to be. I will endeavor to make more frequent communications a part as we press onward.

Some of you are aware that my mama has been battling a rare form of melanoma since the fall of 2000. Last Saturday evening (January 6, 2007), we celebrated her life and loves at my sister’s family’s home in Southern California. Mom passed peacefully through the veil from this life into the next just after one o’clock in the morning on New Year’s Eve. My sister’s family and mine were with her, and my brother’s would have been if flights and weather had cooperated.

Woody called her RoboMom. Her name is Joy. She was.

The legacy she left us is as amazing as her name. I am proud that she chose to share that name with me. Two of her granddaughters also share her Joy, as they are also her namesakes. As I fight to focus on the awesome, heavenly, cancer-free life that she is enjoying now rather than on how much I miss her, I remember the JOY that she brought and that she expects us to continue to share.

Mom was a doer and gave of herself through her service to others. We are not all able to give in the same way she did, but we can all give of ourselves for the benefit of others. She was truly an example of Christ-like love – giving and doing with no thought or expectation of anything in return. Her endless drive made me crazy sometimes (mostly because I couldn’t keep up with her!) but I will always love and miss my wonderful mom.

Life here on Earth cannot be the same without her, but it wasn’t meant to be. As our family continues on to learn our own life’s lessons, my hope and prayer is that I will be able to live up to the example she left. I know I can’t do it her way, so I will strive in my own way to follow Christ in serving others.

Thank you, Mama.