Gonna love ya 'till the cows come home

A few weeks back a beloved member of our apartment complex passed away. She had suffered (I do mean, painfully) with cancer for years. But you'd never know from how she treated us, her neighbors. If you so much as sniffled as you walked by her and her dog Pooh-Bear (who, admittedly, drove me bat-crap-crazy), she'd stop and say oh honey, are you sick? I'll be a-prayin. And she would. I liked to snark that I always parked between her daughter (who lived in the adjoining building to our apartment and who was the mom of one of Nathan's bff's in pre-k and k) because they had all the peace, love and harmony stickers and I had all my gun stickers, I always figured they're rob their cars not mine. But it was a joke and they knew it and we always had a laugh about it. She was just a good friend and our complex is a little darker without her. We all miss her.

So anyway, on the day of her funeral, I took down a casserole and a sympathy card and hugged the mom of the girls that I've known since Nathan was in preschool and the cousin I'd met in the last week or so as they'd gotten ready to move everything out (but I realized I'd met on the 4th of July when I dropped some left-over cupcakes from Josihe's birthday over to them). Anyway, all that to say that I commented on a note/key holder that she had hanging in her house that was made up of 3 black and white cute cow heads making different expressions. I laughed and said all this time I never knew she collected cows like I do, too! Her and I could've set up a cow exchange for a change of pace! So I had a knock on my door just now and it was Brynn and Sarah holding the cow letter holder and Sarah, the mom said "something just told me my mom would've wanted you to have this." Well I burst into tears, got the ugly cries right there in my doorway. Hugged her again and reminded her again, what a blessing her mama had been and how much we all loved her and missed her so much. She rocked me a little, calming me in her time of need, and then we said goodbyes for now (for those of you who reember back, this is the single mom who once commented that I looked like I had it all together).

SO today, I just want everyone to say a little prayer for Sarah and Brynn and Brynn's sister whose name I can never remember. They're a beautiful family. And I'm going to laugh every time I stick a letter in my cow-letter-holder now!