Saying Goodbye To A Fabulous Woman

50... That is how old my aunt Dawn was when Pancreatic Cancer took her life... She never got to have grandchildren, she never attended her child's wedding, and she never collected on her retirement.  She did, however, live a full life with so much love and joy, and I will not be able to sum it up in words.

On Saturday, we all gathered on the sound to pay tribute to a fantastic woman.  There were tears, laughs, hugs, and many toasts to an amazing woman.  It was a really hard day for me.  Dawn passed a few weeks back and I hadn't really dealt with it.  I went on with my day to day life almost pretending that she was still here.  I have to admit that I even called her phone number to hear her voice on the voice mail.  Saturday it really sank in when I herd her Dad talk about her, when her brother Dale talked about being by her side in her final days, and how there was so much love surrounding her as she passed.  It was a really hard day, valuable, but hard. 

I am just going to miss her so much.  When I think about things, I can hear her voice, and I can see her smile.  She was such a beautiful woman...inside and out.  Sometimes I make myself stop thinking about her because it hurts so much, but I know that time heals, and now, I just need to do things in my life that I know would make her proud.

Her last text to me:

 "I am so proud of the woman that you have become, and you are the daughter that I never had.  Remember that the best parts of me will always be with you.  I love you"  

That is hard to read without bursting into tears...in fact, I haven't been able to do it yet.  My heart is broken, but Saturday was a good day to start healing... and I hope that I can start remembering her with smiles, and not so many tears.

All hands on Dawn... All our love, always.