Nick's brother's wife, Heather, took this picture of Ruth and Nick and their little family when they visited Utah, the last time they were together. She posted this on facebook: I took this photo on June 8, 2006 in front of the Salt Lake City, Utah temple. That was the last time we saw Nick, Ruth and Audrey. I don't think we could've picked a better way to spend our last time together.
Another quote: Nothing is ever really lost to us, as long as we remember it. (L.M. Montgomery)
Memories of conversations...
Memories of hugs...
Memories of humor...
Memories of time together...
Wishing we had more, but smiling to see them in old photographs smiling back at us.
Crying (we can't not cry...it just escapes sometimes), then smiling because of something we remember.
When Joie was in the hospital after the accident, they (the hospital) was kind enough to give us a conference/meeting room where both families would gather when we were there. The gift of that room was being able to be away from crowded halls and waiting rooms and just be ourselves together.
There were tears and tissues...lots of tears and tissues.
But what surprised me then was the laughter. I loved how we could be crying one minute, then laughing the next at a funny memory. I remember almost feeling like I was watching myself laugh over funny stories and memories, and the relief of knowing we could still laugh. (Then cry again the next minute.) Isn't the range of human emotion amazing? I love how memory preserves that for us.
Smile because it happened. Because of memory, it never goes away.
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