Background Music: Memories, I Will Always Love You, You Are So Beautiful To Me, One Day More, I Dreamed A Dream

The Beautiful Piano

The last key of mom’s beautiful piano has been played. Her eighty-eight years of life have now come to an end, and she has joined the heavenly orchestra of our Great Conductor.

It is only fitting that mom lived in years, the same amount as there are keys on a piano; because the piano was such an important part of her life, from when she was a little girl, to the age of eighty-eight, when her body finally gave way to sickness, and she could no longer sit and play.

Mom made many friends through playing the piano. She gave lessons to many, some who never forgot her. One of the highlights of mom being a piano teacher happened when she was in the hospital last September. A hospital employee recognized mom as being her piano teacher from fifty years ago. They were thrilled to see each other after such a long time.

Some of mom’s closest friends were those who gathered to sing at the piano bar in the old Padre Hotel Lounge. Those were some of  the fondest memories mom had, and treasured to the very end.

She worked full time at the Downtowner Inn Motel until she was eighty-five years young. She loved her job and didn’t really want to retire, but physically needed to.

Mom had a lot of happy memories in her lifetime. She also had a lot of trials, but what she had to face at the end proved to be the greatest challenge of her life. In September 2012, she was diagnosed with being in an advanced stage of cervical cancer . She had no symptoms of having the disease, until it was too late for her to do anything and still maintain any quality of life. She kept a positive attitude to the end. And she was resolved to the thought that she would soon be with her Maker.

With the help of Optimal Hospice, mom was able to live out her life comfortably at home with her family. I don’t even want to imagine what life would have been like for mom, and our family, had it not been for the outstanding care and support that Optimal Hospice gave. They were truly a Godsend, and we will forever be grateful.

Mom, Linda Smith, was a nurturing and loving mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She leaves behind three children and their families. She is survived by one older sister and her family. Mom always remained close with family, no matter the distance between. There’s no words to express how deeply she will be missed.

Though mom is gone, she leaves behind the beautiful piano of her life, as a legacy to live on through all of us; family and friends alike, who knew and loved her.

May her music be a source of comfort and strength.