I ran a across a book the other day that Dawn had given me some years back. It's called "Mom, Share Your Life With Me." On each page is a date starting with January 1st and ending with December 31st and on each date is a a question for me to answer. Such questions are: "As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? or Tell about the first dance you ever had." Dawn wanted to know about my life and wanted me to write it down and I was to complete it for her so she would be able to read it someday. I completed many of the days, but have never completed every day. She will never be able to read the memories I wrote. She was so into all of that. She was such a sentimental daughter, mom, friend, sister, granddaughter. She was so loved and loved by so many. She left me so many memories and I want her back.
It makes me so sad to think that her kids will never be able to ask her what it was like when she was growing up. They will never be able to give her that kind of book and ask her for her very own memories. Or ask her advice for anything. I need to start writing, not just for me, but for her children. I need to write her memories down for them. We did so much as a family and we were all together so much. I want to share with them all those times so someday they will be able to read about their mommy.
Dawn loved poems, one liners, scripture verses, sayings and she had them posted all over her house. When she found a new one that she would like, she would cut out and tape it on a door, a cupboard or somewhere in sight so she could read it often. When she managed a retail store called "Northern Reflections" she had so many motivational sayings posted on her walls in her office so her employees could read them. She was always like that...she would leave messages on her white boards at her house for her children. The last one she wrote to them "Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around. Have Faith Whatever is meant to be will always find a way. Mommy Loves Taylor and Alison" and then at the bottom Taylor writes "Thanks Mommy" I kept that right board, it's hanging in my kitchen. I would like to preserve and give it to the kids someday.
When we had to go and pack up her house, our whole entire family went in, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma, grandpa, and everyone was just amazed at the love that was felt in her home. Everyone said you could just feel it when you walked in. We took all of her sayings down off her doors and walls, fridge, mirrors, and by her computer. We put them in a special box and someday I want to put them all together and make a book of them, for the kids. When I was sitting at her desk in her office at her house I found a notebook of things she doodled while on the phone. There of course was more sayings, more I love you Taylor and Alison....just so much love left behind for everyone to read and see.
The picture that meant so much to her that she had hanging on her living room wall was of a little boy in a red and white striped shirt with his hands in the back pockets of his jeans, facing the ocean. The picture is called "P.R.I.O.R.I.T.I.E.S" and it reads "A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove...but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child." I remember how she loved that picture. The picture now belongs to Taylor and is hanging in his bedroom in our house. I cry everytime I look at it and read it. SHE WAS SO IMPORTANT IN THE LIVES OF HER CHILDREN -- I don't understand why she was taken so suddenly.
My thoughts are with all of you today and your children that you have lost. How important you all were in their lives!!! And how important they were in yours.
Love and Hugs,
Sharon - Dawn's Mom Forever
live well, laugh often, love much -- oh honey, i miss you!!!!