My Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day . . . what better day to begin a Blog than today? It's hard to believe that I've spent almost 40 years with my Valentine . . . Vic!! Many happy days have been ours and many more lie ahead. I had this little thought the other day . . . the longer we live, the shorter our moments. Maybe I'm just getting a little more "grown up" and realizing that I need to cherish my moments as they come. The events of the past few weeks have made this even more meaningful to me.

It hardly seems possible that just last Saturday I was at my niece's (Jana Bell Thornton) funeral. How quickly her short life went and how she left us so suddenly and unexpectedly. I wish that I had spent more time with her . .. but will cherish more and more the times we were together. Vic and I were celebrating our 39th wedding anniversary (January 28th) - sharing the scrumptious delights at Sizzler . . . my choice. We had gone early in the evening so that we could head on out to teach the ladies at prison for our usual Wednesday night. As we came out, got a call from Laura on my cell phone telling me of a horrid accident invovling Jana and Brock. They were driving to the Salt Lake airport to fly out to see her sister, Holly, who lives in Chicago - hit some slush . . . rolled the car . .. they were thrown out and Jana had extensive head injuries. So the family spent a long 4 days filled with hope . . . but knowing in our hearts that her chances weren't good. The hard decision was made to take her off life support . .. and we arrived at the hospital just prior to that decision. She only stayed with us for a short few minutes after that and we were left with our broken hearts and memories. I am sharing 2 photos that we took of her at her wedding which was on September 20, 2008.

So as I celebrate posting my first blog, I also celebrate all the wonderful members of my family who love and support one another through hard times and happy times. What is life without family and faith that the family bonds are forever?