Billie
08-04-2006, 08:08 AM
"Think you can’t change the world? Too late, you already have. It was changed for the better the minute you were born. There are more people than you can imagine who will never be the same because they came in contact with you, if only for a fleeting moment."
Gail Pursell Elliott
I have a dear and wonderful friend who will not be with me much longer. She and her husband have been my "role models" for a good marriage. They have been my morning cronies for coffee for the last couple of years and both have been very active in my agency and its activities. They both are truly the nicest people I have ever known in my life, caring, on top of the world problems, doing something locally to help anyone, bright, articulate...all of it. But most of all, they twinkle, and clearly adore each other.
When Gabe moved here in December we had big plans to do many things together. They came over Christmas Eve morning for breakfast but she wasn't feeling to well, as she said "I have some annoying problem" and passed it off. When we got married in January, of course they were there but she looked very tired and they left early.
Diagnosis came and went and if you can imagine this we were hoping for a diagnosis of ovarian cancer, but we were not that lucky. It was something much more devastating and evasive. Last night they removed her feeding tubes, she sleeps now with the thankfully powerful drugs for pain about 24 hours a day. She has planned her memorial service, continued to tell her dear husband what to do and how best to do it and given us a piece of instructions to carry on and to do what we do in our lives.
I know the time is very close and of coruse I am very sad, but when I saw this quote this morning I thought of my dear friend, how much she changed so many lives and how everyone who knew her adored her. Oh she could be very fiesty, I probably loved that about her most of all, always sticking up for her principals and values and beliefs.
I was able to write her a note over the weekend to thank her for being apart of my life and for telling her all she has given me and to continue my promises of making sure her husband gets out and does things. It was hard to write but I needed to say "I will never be the same because you came in contact with me, if only for a fleeting moment."
Reach out to all your friends today and help me honor mine if you would, tell those who are dear to you that you care about them, don't waste a moment not picking up the phone or dropping by or sending an email to say, "you changed my life".
Keep my friend in your thoughts if you would, she is gentle on my mind.
Gail Pursell Elliott
I have a dear and wonderful friend who will not be with me much longer. She and her husband have been my "role models" for a good marriage. They have been my morning cronies for coffee for the last couple of years and both have been very active in my agency and its activities. They both are truly the nicest people I have ever known in my life, caring, on top of the world problems, doing something locally to help anyone, bright, articulate...all of it. But most of all, they twinkle, and clearly adore each other.
When Gabe moved here in December we had big plans to do many things together. They came over Christmas Eve morning for breakfast but she wasn't feeling to well, as she said "I have some annoying problem" and passed it off. When we got married in January, of course they were there but she looked very tired and they left early.
Diagnosis came and went and if you can imagine this we were hoping for a diagnosis of ovarian cancer, but we were not that lucky. It was something much more devastating and evasive. Last night they removed her feeding tubes, she sleeps now with the thankfully powerful drugs for pain about 24 hours a day. She has planned her memorial service, continued to tell her dear husband what to do and how best to do it and given us a piece of instructions to carry on and to do what we do in our lives.
I know the time is very close and of coruse I am very sad, but when I saw this quote this morning I thought of my dear friend, how much she changed so many lives and how everyone who knew her adored her. Oh she could be very fiesty, I probably loved that about her most of all, always sticking up for her principals and values and beliefs.
I was able to write her a note over the weekend to thank her for being apart of my life and for telling her all she has given me and to continue my promises of making sure her husband gets out and does things. It was hard to write but I needed to say "I will never be the same because you came in contact with me, if only for a fleeting moment."
Reach out to all your friends today and help me honor mine if you would, tell those who are dear to you that you care about them, don't waste a moment not picking up the phone or dropping by or sending an email to say, "you changed my life".
Keep my friend in your thoughts if you would, she is gentle on my mind.