on being fifty, and other sad things that are really sad...

Fifty freakin' years old. How can that POSSIBLY be possible? And how is it that I now say, "freakin'"? I really don't. It just sounded good with "fifty".

And my birthday was last month. Abigail just mailed me the pictures she took that day. It was a perfect day on the beach with lots of the kids and my bestie, Kim, with three of her kids and her sweet little granddaughter.

Anyhoo. This morning, I drove to the city to the airport...and said goodbye to Mirielle 25, who is taking two sisters to a church conference in Norway, Miss Kathryn 17 and Miss Evelyn, almost 16. They are renting a car, then driving down to New York City, and flying from there to Oslo. They will be gone for ten days, wah. Abigail and Margaret are there, safe and sound...gone for a whole year.

I'm never sure about talking about things that aren't really my stories to tell, but it does affect me, because my heart aches about this...

There is much sadness here in our church, as some very close friends of ours lost their daughter yesterday morning. She passed away in her sleep. She had cerebral palsy. She couldn't talk in the normal sense, but she certainly could communicate! When she was small, she was the smiliest baby I ever laid eyes on! She had a wicked sense of humor, and she lit up the room with her laughter. She was the youngest of their six children, and the whole family loved her to pieces. Theirs is the house with the pool we have visited three times this summer...

This is Missy, taken a few weeks ago. She loved having people over. I know she's in a better place, free from pain, free from her chair, and her body...but I still can't stop crying. My heart is broken for her family. Missy was 26 years old, and her passing was totally out of the blue, God knew it was coming, but no one else did.

We are packing up today and moving into the camper until next week. I won't be blogging there, probably, busy with candy store and and and...it all seems so strange that life just goes on when our friends are going through something like this...