Camille read the poem “God Saw You” at the funeral.

God Saw You

God saw you getting tired,
When a cure was not to be.
So He wrapped his arms
around you, and whispered,
“Come to me”

You didn’t deserve what you went through,
So He gave you rest.
God’s garden must be beautiful,
He only takes the best

And when I saw you sleeping,
So peaceful and free from pain
I could not wish you back
To suffer that again.

Author Unknown

This is a letter we wrote to our mom after she passed away. Camille, my older sister, read it at her funeral.

Dear Mom,

We wanted to write you a letter to let you know how much we love you. You’re the Best Mom ever and always will be. We are so proud of how brave and strong you have been throughout your entire illness. You are an inspiration to us, not just during your illness, but just as the person that you have always been. You were always there for us and supported us and we appreciate that. We are grateful to have you as our Mom. You are not just a Mom to us, you are our Best Friend.

You are the BEST role model that a daughter could have. You are everything that anyone would ever want in a Mom. You are in every sense of the way, the perfect Mom. We are so proud of you in more ways that words can describe. We could never thank you enough for all that you have done. Even if we said “thank you” every single day from here until eternity, it would not be enough.

We will always remember you in our hearts. We know that you’re here with us.

Love forever and always,
Your Girls
Camille, Carrie, Laura, JJ and Jamie

For swim team each year at the end of the season we would write down remember whens. It was a reflection on the funny stuff that happened that year. When mom passed away we decided to write some remember whens to help us remember all the good times we had with her. Here is the list we came up with. Feel free to add comments to this page if you have some remember whens you would like to share.

• Remember when we would put on our jean shorts and grab our piece of carpet and head to the spill way. You always made sure that we had on an old beat up pair of shoes so that we didn’t step on anything or get hurt.
• Remember when we went to Arizona and we were walking down a dirt path. How can you forget? You fell down the crack in the path and starting laughing so hard, you couldn’t get up. Juelles, Jamie, and Camille kept saying, “Get up Mom,” and you were laughing so hard about slipping down the crevice into the crack in the path that you couldn’t do anything but laugh hysterically. LOL
• Remember when we went roller skating and you taught us how to limbo, play the dice game, and skate backwards and sideways. You also taught us how to do the two-step dance on roller skates. Oh yeah, and you would be our partner for the moonlight skate if we needed somebody to go backwards.
• Remember when we went ice skating and you thought that the ice was cracking so we had to hurray up and get off the ice? That was a close call.
• Remember when you dressed up as a bunny to hide Easter eggs for us and Carrie thought you were the real Easter bunny?
• Remember when you and Dad along with many other friends and family help build our new house?
• Remember the year that we went searching for a Christmas tree? Didn’t we try to chop one down for our house? That turned out to be a disaster! We ended up buying one that year.
• Remember when you would come to ALL of our swim meets, basketball games, volleyball games, softball games, track events, choir concerts, piano recitals, and dance recitals?
• Remember when we found a stray dog with no hair on his bottom and fleas and you let us keep him?
• Remember when we would stop in and get donuts and see you in the produce section at Food-4-Less? You would let us into the Freezer Room to get some strawberries. All of your co-workers got to know us girls.
• Remember when you would always sit in the sink to put on your make up and do your hair?
• Remember when we went skiing at Fun Valley and we would be following you down the mountain and we would ski under your legs.
• Remember when you tried to help Laura down the Big Hill at the ski resort for the first time? She was scared but when you got her down the hill she loved it and wanted to go again.
• Remember when we would go to Adventure land every year? You would ride the roller coasters with us and we loved it.
• Remember when we would get on Tammy and Sweetie and go for a horseback ride through the cemetery and over to the lake. We would walk the horses through the water at the up-side down bridge. Sometimes we would take the horses up to Waterfall World there. Sometimes we would take a dip and let the horses rest. That was really fun!
• Remember when we would go outside and jump on the trampoline, doing all kinds of jumps and twists. Did you ever do the forward or backward flip Mom?
• Remember when you painted the Strawberry Shortcake playhouse for us? It was so cool with the strawberries painted beside the door with our names in red paint. You made the curtains by hand for us and decorated the interior with strawberry shortcake furniture. We spent many hours in that playhouse, maybe even spent the night in it.
• Remember when you set up the backyard as a petting zoo. We had the pony ride section starring Candy. Then, there was a set up for petting and viewing the kittens, bunnies, and dog. Another section had games for us kids to play. The Kindergarten class was excited and talked about it for weeks.
• Remember when we would all pile into the Jeep Wagoner with the big inflatable boat with oars on top and head out to Rock Creek Lake for some fun at the beach. There were always all kinds of activities to do at the Lake including swimming, sunbathing, paddle boating and fishing.
• Remember when we took our trip to Apple River? We floated down the river on our inner tubes with friends and family. Karma lost her glasses. Camille unintentionally vacated her inner tube during the Rapids portion of the river and went for an unpleasant, rocky swim.
• Remember when you first felt the water pressure at Carrie’s house? Nice, huh? WHOO WHEE!
• Remember when you would laugh so hard, you would snort?
• Remember when we made our back hill into a ski resort with the Jeep and a rope?
• Remember when you would always bring licorice on the trail rides? We loved that little treat! It was always fun to go camping on our trail rides too.
• Remember when it started pouring down rain during one of our trail rides and we had to run the horses hard back to the trailer. We were completely drenched and it was so much fun riding them through the rain.
• Remember all the pets we had? There’s too many to name.
• Remember when you wore shoes? We don’t.
• Remember when we had a campfire in the backyard and we would make Smores. Mmmm.
• Remember when you became a grandma for the first time?
• Remember when you would let us build tents in the basement with all the blankets? We had so much fun turning the furniture into a camp ground in our home?
• Remember when you would watch all of our homemade movies? Thanks for always encouraging us.
• Remember when the cat drug in the possum and you let us keep him as a pet. We grew to love Sneezer so much.
• Remember when you would always bake and we would help you make all kinds of cookies, brownies, and cake. We loved putting all the sprinkles on the cookies.