Arline

As most of you know, Arline, my stepfather Mark's mother, has been very ill. She passed away last night. Arline has been like my grandmother since I was 12 years old when my mom and Mark had gotten together. When my grandmother passed away Arline and I grew even closer and then when Olivia arrived into our lives, it truly brought our families closer. Olivia called her GiGi for great-grandmother. Olivia absolutely loved her Gigi and when Pam (Mark's sister) started watching Olivia once or twice a week, she got to see GiGi all that more often. She constantly talks about her and knows that she was sick and had to see the doctor. I am not sure how to approach this one with her.

Mark and his sisters were all together last night. It is extremely hard and so sad to say good bye to her. She was such a wonderful person and whenever I try to explain to people how wonderful she truly was, I tell the story about the day of my grandmother's funeral. When my grandmother passed away almost 5 years ago, it devastated our family, truly devastated. At the funeral we were hardly able to keep it together. (my grandmother passed away unexpectedly, so there was no preparation or warning).

Arline came up to me and put her arm around me & this is what she said to me:

Sherilyn, Gram knew how much you loved her, there was no doubt about that, so don't ever doubt that or feel badly about not being able to say good-bye. I will tell you how I know she knew you really loved her. On the night of her last birthday when we all got together and went out to dinner, you & Erik were leaving a little early and got up from the table and said your goodbyes and left. You walked out, but then came back in & went right over to Gram, kissed her on the cheek and said "I love you Gram" & then you turned and left. I said to Gram, "wow, that was really sweet of Sherilyn to do that." Gram said, "oh, Sherilyn? She always tells me how much she loves me and I will always get that from her".

Even though this story from Arline made me break down in tears, it made me feel so much better and truly opened my heart to Arline for her to remember this story and share it with me. That is how wonderful this woman was and she will be so missed by my family.