One Year Ago

Thanks for the picture Jacob!

A year ago today our family lost a wonderful woman, Marj Johnson to a ruptured aortic aneurysm. It was such a hard day because Patrick and I had just found out we were going to have a baby and she couldn't have been more excited. We have been reminiscing all day about the day we lost Marj a year ago and so many fun stories are surfacing. She was a feisty woman who did more with her life than I could ever even think of doing and I was so lucky to have gotten to know her in the last few years of her life. In memory of Marj we gave Riley the middle name Ann, which also happens to be my middle name as well. I am hoping we can instill some of Marj's values and personality into our daughter and hopefully she will find our stories as funny as we do when she is old enough to understand.

What makes me the most sad is the day before Marj died she had told Patrick that she was going to call me the next day and talk to me about being pregnant and give me some advice. I was so excited and then when I didn't receive the phone call I knew something was wrong. Oddly enough Patrick had been working at the farm an hour away, which doesn't have cell phone service but for some reason decided to come back early. If it weren't for him being home he would have missed Marj's last minutes and I know he would have regretted it so I was so thankful that so many of us were able to gather at her bedside. Another odd event happened because I was supposed to be at work and due to low census I was at home when I received the phone call so I was able to go as well. God was looking out for us that day, we were able to be there with Marj and in some way it was a blessing to her as well, she had been suffering with so much pain. We will always remember you Grandma Marj!