Please Don't Take Our Sunshine Away.

My mother in law was the finest lady I ever met in the truest sense of the word. She always had room at her table, in her home and in her heart for anyone. She raised ten sons and four daughters and always said, "They were never any trouble." I knew better! After all, I'm married to #3! I was around to watch lots of them grow up and I watched the infinite patience and love she had for each and every one of them. Today, if you ask, each will swear that they were her favorite!
I know, in my heart, that I was her favorite daughter-in-law! That is how she made every one of us feel and that is what made her such a great lady. You knew she was thrilled when you "dropped in" for dinner and you never noticed the meat was cut in smaller pieces - you just noticed there was lots of bread and gravy to go with it! She loved my Rachel so much and during all the trips to doctors and medical facilities when Rachel was a baby she would be right beside her letting Rachel squeeze her finger during the whole trip while grandma sang, "you are my sunshine, my only sunshine" over and over again as she did down through the years to all her babies and grand-babies and great grand-babies.

When she lay, in a coma, at the end we all sang, "You are my Sunshine" to her. Her lips moved silently with the words and she smiled before drifting further away from us. That was in 2006, yet not a day goes by that I do not smile about something she did or said, or feel the tears gathering because I still miss her so.

Last month I was not feeling well and I was worried. Someone came up behind me, put their hand gently on my shoulder, patted it twice and then squeezed it gently and that hand was so warm and comforting I knew who it was!. I turned around to grasp the hand and say "thank you" but, of course she was not there. I know, though, as well as I know anything, that she was there in that moment when I needed her. She was there as she had been for me so many other times and I knew everything was going to work out. You never lose the people you love because they remain in your heart forever.

I found this plaque at a craft fair and gave it to Mom's "favorite" daughter. And, you know, each and every one of them really, really was.