Loss...

It seems to me the world loses an awful lot of good people before their primes. It's an interesting thing... and one that's not really very fair. Wednesday night, the mother of one of my oldest friends lost her battle with cancer.

This was a woman who was always a mom and wife first. She raised three children and two foster children, and welcomed all of their friends into her home.

As my girl scout leader, she taught me how to do simple cross-stitch (from which I produced a pink gingham apron with cross-stitched sailboats for my grandmother).

She allowed me, as a young girl (elementary aged), to use her phone to invite people to a surprise anniversary party I threw for my parents--and stood by without saying a word (but probably laughing heartily on the inside) as I asked each guest I invited to bring some food item to contribute to the party. How embarrassing.

She did not react outwardly when I once asked her if she was having a baby--though knowing how I'd react now if some little neighbor kid asked me that about my midlife-birthed-two-kids paunch, I'm sure she had choice words about me later that night. Then again, knowing her, she probably didn't. I hope she forgot about my faux pas years ago because I know it's bothered me almost since the moment it came out of my mouth.

Several years ago, she battled and survived breast cancer. But last year the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. Not so curable. From what I hear, she fought a hard and courageous battle. And I know she had the love and support of her family through it all and right up to the very end. She will leave a void in their lives that will take some getting used to, but I wonder if she knew how much she touched so many other people's lives in various ways?