Having Hope While Letting Go!!!

It is always hard to just let it go, especially when it is someone you love. 

One of my cousins has pinned the phrase best, "My first tears of 2024!" I must admit, I didn't see this one coming at all. 

When I saw you last, I was leaving to come back home from Thanksgiving at Mom's, and I stopped over as I would often do, not knowing why the urge that came over was so different than other times. 

Now, know why because you would not make it to see 2024. 

Many memories flood my mind as I remember the many tasks we have done together that bring a big smile to my face. I'll never forget the summer I came over to spend with my grandparents, and why I didn't bring enough clothes. I'm still trying to figure that one out in my head, but that was the year I learned how to sew without a pattern. 

You had some beautiful fabric, and we made several outfits together. I was ever so proud of myself, but to see the big smile on your face when I came out with the finished product, "I knew I had created something worth wearing. I did make some mistakes, but you never once got upset with me; you showed me how to take the seam out and try it again. I loved my little headband that I made, and I thought I was something. I made about 4 outfits with matching headbands. I will never forget that summer and the many other summers that I spent with you. It helped shape the woman I have become in so many ways. It taught me how to help my children, who are adults now, and I pray it will help me be an amazing grandmother one day. 

You and your family have many memories etched in my mind, even all the way back to Dumas. Seeing you at your mom's house, Mama Shirley's, and your brother tossing me up in the air as high as I believed the trees. Big Huge Laughs bellowing out. 

I'm going to miss you. heck, I'm missing you right now, but I realize you are not suffering anymore, and you don't have to worry about what others are thinking concerning your health and weight. You always had the most humorous way of explaining to me what was going on with you, and I'm glad you shared that information with me because you wanted me to be educated on it. It was helpful, and it was taken to the prayer room of my heart. 

I love you then, I love you now, and I will love you forever, Aunt Debra, the mother to many who didn't really understand their mothers. You have been an Amazing Surrogate Mother! 

Rest Well, which I know you are because you believed and were a woman of FAITH & PRAYER!