My mom had a beautiful life, living ninety-five years with almost forty-five of them married to my dad. Losing my dad when she was only sixty-two and he sixty-four, she showed us how to deal with grief and survive loss. We moved her to Florida from Missouri to be near my sister, her oldest child, but prior to that she lived in the same house for just a few months shy of fifty-four years. Making that move was not an easy one for any number of reasons, not the least of which was the assisted living facility she was moving in to was being evacuated as she was traveling to Florida. That was hurricane Ian, which turned out to be a very deadly one for Florida. Fortunately, for my mother, Ian turned inland around Fort Meyers sparing her new home to be in Crystal River.

I miss my mom daily and realize how lucky I am to have had such a strong, positive person to guide me growing up. Her and my dad were a great team and great parents. She was the youngest of five children, and the only girl, and family was very important to her. I think she did a good job of instilling that in to her five children, as well. She was close with her brothers and their wives were the sisters she never had and that led to all our families being close. Her and I were pretty close and talked often, whether I called her or she called me. I would visit her when I could, but California is a long way from Missouri and even further from Florida, once we got her moved

* * *

I was asked (voted) to put together something to play at her visitation and put together this slideshow of family pictures that hopefully gave people a glimpse in to her life. In hindsight, I would have used fewer pictures and added names and description, but I was working on a tight schedule as you might imagine.