Aunt Julie

My blog today is a tribute to my Aunt Julie. She passed away this morning at my mom's house after a lengthy battle with cancer. Not only was she my Aunt but she was my Godmother too. Julie was a wonderful friend to me; I knew I could always talk to her about anything. I remember the morning that my mom called me to tell me Julie was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was February of 2007, Jacob was about 4 months old; I remember crying and crying and crying. She beat a lot of odds making it the 4 1/2 years after her diagnosis. My mom and I talk every morning on her way to work (and we have for the last 5 years when I moved to CT) so for the last month, I've been paranoid when the phone rings (or when it rings later than normal) and always feel better when I see it's my mom's cell phone calling instead of her house number. I knew if she was on her way to work that it wasn't going to be a bad call. I talked to her this morning and though my Aunt wasn't doing well when mom left for work this morning, she was still around. I don't get many calls throughout the day on my cell phone and when it started to ring today around lunchtime my heart just sunk a little. I saw that it was my mom's house number calling and immediately knew what the call was about before answering it. I'm thankful mom was there with Grandma so neither of them were alone. I'm thankful for all they've done for Julie over the last couple of months. They have both sacrificed so much of themselves to be there with her so she wasn't alone.

I'm so thankful that around when I was 15 Julie and her family moved to Virginia from Illinois. I would've never gotten to know her like I did if that hadn't of happened. She let me "work" for her when I was 18 and I helped her out with her kids. I'd spend a few hours at her house a few days a week. I don't know how much of a help I really was to her but I'm grateful for the time I spent with her and for the many wonderful conversations we had.

I sat down with Jacob today to tell him Great Aunt Julie was in heaven with God and Jesus now. He noticed that I was sad and told me that I shouldn't be sad because Aunt Julie was in heaven with Great Grandpa Gibson now and that they were friends. I had to smile through my tears. She is most definitely friends with my grandpa and I'm sure that they're both looking down at us smiling and not wanting us to be sad.  And, as Jacob says, One day I'll go to heaven and I'll see them again--I just hopes it's not for a very long time.

I love you, Aunt Juj. 

Rest In Peace.

Julie with Zach, November 2, 2008.

Our family has suffered the loss of three wonderful people over the last three weeks (Daniel's granddad, my grandpa, and now my Aunt Julie). I miss them all more now than I ever thought possible.