Gary, I conquered my first round of tears at Minnie's death and came back to read your post which brought tears all over again. It was a lovely post. You are right that the absolute best way to honor Minnie is to enjoy our days and moments here on earth, love our family, live our faith, and be compassionate to others who are struggling.

Amy, I valued the interactions I had with your mom because of all the things other people have mentioned here; her deep faith, her overall positivity, her obvious love of her family and concern for other people she met here and all the work she did to help other people going through this. But I will add that one of the reasons I will miss her deeply in addition to all that is that she was such an honest and authentic person. We did a couple of PMs back and forth at one time, when she and I were both struggling with feelings about being on a feeding tube, and she was very frustrated by it right at that point, and said clearly that she didn't think anyone going through cancer treatment should have to always act positive if they were feeling discouraged or like they needed a moment of self-pity. I recall her saying that somewhere in one of her public postings as well though I can't recall what thread it took place in.

In her posts and her pms as well as what she posted to her Carepages, what I loved about Minnie was she let us see her when she was scared and when she was discouraged and was as honest about being in those places as she was about being hopeful and having faith. Her post to Donna above is a great indication of that. As a result, I never felt I had to be anything other than what I was with her and that she would care about me and understand anyway. I think that's the impression she made on most people and I'm sure that's part of what you'll miss about her as a mother.

Amy, last year when your mom found out she had a recurrence I sent her a pm asking her if she minded if I lit a candle for her in our church service and she said she would be honored by that. I will light a candle for her memory in tomorrow's service and for all of her family surviving her. You were truly what she cared about most and was justifiably proud of. Your mom will live on in my memory as long as I live.

Nelie