Reba Sue

I feel as if I have been punt kicked out of the stadium and far up onto another mountain not of my choosing. The wind is out of me and the tears have flowed like twin creeks to matching rivers somewhere deep within my heart.


Someone very close to me has died unexpectedly.

She was my cousin and older than me by several years, a teenager while I was still a child, but she is one of those people, like her entire family, who matter. She matters to me, just as her sister and brother matter to me to the depths I often don’t, and sometimes can’t, express.

A day would hardly go by without us sharing an e-mail, and two or three weeks would not go by without us talking. She mattered to me because she was my cousin, my family, my blood, but more importantly she was my friend. She matters to me and because I know she isn’t going to be there to talk to and to laugh with and to share things with it hurts so very deeply.

My pain is nothing compared to her husband’s pain and her children’s, or her sister’s and brother’s. I have lost enough people to know I cannot make their pain less in any way, nor can I ease their burden of it; but I can hurt with them because Reba Sue is one of those people who matter to the people around her. That’s just the way God made her.

Difficult to Explain

It is hard to write these words, and I have actually delayed for a long time to put them out here. My beautiful fur-baby JoJo passed away on September 9th around Noon.

According to the vet she had been fighting an auto-immune disease that was robbing her of her ability to make red blood cells. We all know that, without red blood cells you simply can't live. Dr. Taylor went so far as to give her a blood transfusion which seemed to have been the perfect cure, but after a week in the hospital of observation JoJo had another turn for the worst. Dr. Taylor gave Jo another blood transfusion, but it didn't take. We were hoping for her to be able to get home so I could see her one more time and if she was to pass she would be surrounded by people who loved her more than anything. Unfortunately JoJo just couldn't make it home and she passed at the hospital. It actually hurt Dr. Taylor to tell us she was gone, because we had done everything we could for her, and so had he.

I had her cremated and Hubby is bringing her home today. Later on he will take her out to the farm to bury her, but she is going to make it home one last time.

This is really hurting. She was my baby girl. She was the youngest of all of the dogs so should have been the next in line as lead for the dogs, but she isn't. Hopefully in her three or four years of life she had a wonderful one here with us. I know she was spoiled and everyone who came into the house - well, almost everyone - was greeted and she made sure to let them know she was approachable and pet able. Really, she didn't mind to be petted at all! Plus, she had a smile to prove it.

Things are really quiet in the house now. I didn't realize how much life JoJo put into the house, but she did. She filled the house with living, loving, and play. I miss her terribly, and will for a long while.