Sad news

Sam's sister Susan passed away on Friday night. I am grateful that we had to opportunity to be in town for the past few days and had some very spiritual experiences talking with her. Throughout this hard time I am relying on her strength that she held onto until the end. Just the day before, she worked with her husband to write one final post on her blog. It took her all day to dictate it to him, as she would say a few words and then wait and rest a while and pick it up again later. Being hard to speak, each word that she chose spoke sentences. Not very many people have the opportunity to write such a thing, and we all treasure it. I was going to pull a few of my favorite parts to share...but I can't narrow it down. If you want, you can read it all on her blog http://lemonademakers.blogspot.com/. She definitely set the bar high and we will miss her.



I will forever remember her strength and her caring attitude throughout all of this. Despite what she experienced she found a way to hold strong to her faith in Jesus Christ, to be optimistic, and somehow even gave comfort to all of us. I know-it should have been the other way around, but in the past few weeks when she knew that we were all distraught with the realization of where things were leading, we could tell she was making a conscious effort to make us laugh. Hard to believe I know, but she mustered up funny faces to make at Rachel and had many one liners where she mocked her visitors in attempt to lighten the mood. All of us were focusing on her pain and how hard things were for her...and she was thinking of us.

When I start getting upset about how things turned out and wondering "Why?" I always remember something she wrote just after being diagnosed:
"Tonight as Justin and I were eating dinner, it was the first chance we've really had to sit and talk about our feelings and what we are going to do. Naturally the conversation turned to "Why?"After about 30 seconds we decided it was a pointless conversation to continue.My answer is that it doesn't really matter, and I'll drive myself crazy in the meantime trying to figure it out.Yes, I don't meet any of the known risk factors, and I'm only 25, but for whatever reason this is mine to own now.It may sound crazy to say this, but I really do feel blessed by so many of the events over the last few months, and I know that Justin and I and our families will continue to be blessed through whatever course this takes us." (written just after she was diagnosed in July 2008).



She decided not to dwell on the why?...and so I will try to do the same.

I know you are all wondering how we are doing. Right now we are focusing our energy on being happy that she is no longer in pain and we are enjoying reminiscing together. We also find joy thinking of her, being greeted by family in the Spirit World and being able to hear the sought after answers to some of life's biggest questions.

Susan mentioned that she wanted to set up a foundation to help others dealing with colon cancer so we are working on that and are grateful that we will have something to work on that keeps her legacy alive and also be able to turn and do service for others in similar circumstances.

Thanks for all of your prayers I know you have been thinking of us and we appreciate it.