I will miss my sister.  I will miss being able to call her and sharing  menu ideas, receipes, talking about gardening and just sharing. 

On her last visit to our home in Georgia, we had a great visit to Helen GA and a good hike up to Ruby Anna Falls.  On the way home we stopped and I bought a little girl bird statue to go in my secret garden.  I will remember her and the trip we took everytime I look at my garden.   

I can take comfort that Irene is with our heavenly Father and is no longer in pain. 



     

   


   


       

My mother once told me that she didn't know what she had done so right or so good in life that she deserved to end up in this beautiful place.  

She loved it here on Lake Cherokee.  

This is the view from Mom's bedroom window. She chose to retire here instead of some far away hospital.  She came home where she was the happiest.

As always, she lived her life on her terms. 

When I was little my mother would take me to Love Field Airportand we would stand outside to watch the planes come and go. She was so young. She wanted to fly out and see the world, to touch it, to taste it, to breathe it in. She drove her 1964 Corvair to Galveston, Houston, Austin, Tennessee, and Colorado. The open road called to her.  She yearned for flight.  She prayed or planned or wished, who knows, but her desires came true. She travelled the world. 

My mother experienced life in big brave mouth fulls.  She believed she could achieve her goals and she did.  Her single minded determination made a way when it seemed like there was no way. She enjoyed her life.  She made it what she wanted it to be and she lived it on her own terms.

Free spirit.  She has always been and will always be a free spirit.