Death and Love

This past week my ex-husbands aunt, whom he was very close to passed away. She had been ill for quiet a few years, but we were still caught off guard by her death. This aunt was like a grandmother to my boys, in fact Braxton called her "Aunt Grandma". She was part of my family and my life for 14 years. She was the one person that always remembered my birthday and made it special for me, she wanted to fill in the empty space my mom had left in the best manner that she could. She knew she would not be my mom, but she tried to fill that void as best she could. I am so glad that she was in my life and miss the role she played in my life. I will never forget the kindness she showed to me and the love she gave my children! The boys are so blessed to have experienced her unconditional love.

I talked to her dauhgter today and she was asking me how old I was when my mom died and we paralelled our experiences somewhat. I told her that I knew her mother loved her dearly and she replied, "I know that she loved me, I just hope that she knew I loved her, and she burst into tears". This shocked me because this girl was always there for her mom and sacrificed so much during the past several years. She then went on to say that she felt bad because in the past 19 months, since she had her son, she had chosen him, her own child over her mom. She actually felt guilty for taking care of her child over her mom. What do you say to that? I told her that I was sure that it made her mom proud that she was such a good mother and that she put her child's needs above everything else. I also asked her, didn't you tell her that you loved her every day? And she replied yes I did. I told her that there was no doubt in my mind that she knew how dearly she loved her.

This just reminds me how important it is to tell the people in your life that you love them, but more importantly go the extra mile to SHOW them how much you love them and acknowledge to them that you know that they love you, so that if tomorrow never comes they will have no doubts that you loved them and that you know they loved you!!