2 years

My sister said it so beautifully!
While my family was by Mindy's side for her final hours I was unable to be there. I was 38 weeks pregnant. I was in West Virginia while everyone else including my husband was in Alabama. I was too far along to travel, yet my heart was torn. I wanted to be there and be supportive and be able to say my good-byes but God had a different plan. I stayed with a family friend just in case my time came. I carried the cell phone around for any morsel of news there was.
The scene Amy laid out so beautifully, I fear would have been too much for me to bare. I might not have been able to keep it together. I am thankful my final memories of Mindy are of a time where she felt a little better. We went down in Feb. 2008 and she was having a really good day. So good in fact that she felt like going shopping. We went to some little boutiques downtown and we even managed to get a nail in our tire. I treasure these memories of her. Mindy found out she was sick a few months after our little girl was born. We lived so far away and she was on chemo and sick all of the time it was hard to visit. I think that she didn't want her kids to see her that way. She was in so much pain and sick from all the meds she spent most of her time asleep on the couch. This is such a dramatic difference from what she usually did. Mindy was never idle. She was always working on a quilt or a craft, or cooking, or baking. She was the picture of a proverbs 31 woman. She was submissive and gentle. Meek and kind. I am so privileged to be her daughter. She never called me her daughter in law. I was a part of the family. I was loved and accepted joyfully into her family. Who could dream for more.
My son was born 3 weeks after Mindy passed. She never laid eyes on my son but she had had a baby that look just like him. J is a spitting image of his daddy. Mindy always said my husband was the most loving, cuddly little boy. And my son is exactly the same way. He would rather be cuddling me than most anything else. Except for maybe chewing "na na" (gum). I know she would have been over the moon for him. Just like she was with all of her grandchildren.
We talk about Grammy Smith often to our children. She will always be their Grammy!