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Aunt Kathy

My Aunt died Wednesday night, July 29, 2009. She'd been on life support for awhile while my family struggled with the decision to either force her to fight a battle we all wanted her to win (something I don't have the energy or emotion to write about right now), or take her off her ventilator and let her make the decision herself. They chose to take her off the ventilator and she eventually grew tired of the battle. I don't blame her.

Her memorial service was Sunday in Tennessee. My brother, sister, and I drove up there Saturday afternoon - arrived there at 1:30AM Sunday morning. The service was Sunday afternoon and Jeff and I headed back Monday morning.

While we were all there for a very, very somber reason, being surrounded by our family made it a little easier to find some positivity. Aunt Kathy brought all of us together, under one roof, for the first time in 20 years. A woman with that kind of power won't ever be forgotten. A woman with that amount of love will always be missed. Sitting under a pavilion at a park that overlooked the Smokies and Douglas Dam, were four generations of Aunt Kathy's family. Four. Generations. It was pretty incredible.

I think she would have been happy about that. And I think she would have been happy with our family photo.

(click image to enlarge)
Here we are, in all our glory.

We love you. We miss you already.

Comments

what do you think? said…
Yeah, I miss her, too. But look at the group of us. She would have been happy that we were all there.
Jessica Nelson said…
I'm sorry she's gone from here but glad you found some goodness in her passing.
Anonymous said…
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