Chelsea Tower

 In Memory of the Strongest Person I Have Ever Known

For anyone that may still be checking in on my pitiful little blog in hopes of scrappy goodness, I wanted to post an update that I never wanted to do.....

Peacefully, on September 25th, my sister lost her battle with cancer.

She was 39 years old, and leaves behind 2 beautiful children,

Isabelle who is 11 and Addison who is 7.

She loved her children, she loved her 'secondary children' at the daycare that she ran,

she loved her family, she loved her friends, she loved Disney.

I saw my sister go through things that broke my heart, shattered my spirit, and tore apart my faith that good things happen to good people.  She was confined to her bed, she was not able to make some last memories with her children.... everything moved way too fast and all of a sudden we were sitting bedside with her 24/7 for 3 long weeks before her body had just had enough.

I spent up to 12 hours/day with her in those last few weeks, and they still don't feel like enough.  I left the hospital that night kissing her about a dozen times on the forehead and telling her I loved her probably just as many.  I hope she heard me.... as she took her last breath shortly after I left.

She will be my inspiration for the rest of my life.  Everything I do, I will ask myself, would Dari smile?  Would she be proud?  Would she slap me?  Would she roll her eyes?  Or would she laugh?

She will be with me every step that I take.

There are no words that will ever explain how my heart aches, how my gut just seizes up when I realize I will never get to hug her again or talk to her, or just SEE her face to face.  It's a pain that I never expected.

Cherish your family, take the moments you get whether they be small or big, and treat them as precious as they truly are.  Life is too short not to.