Heaven

Wow, it has been a whole year since I posted on this blog! Sorry for any of those who have worried about my absence, I have had a lot going on in my life and it might be awhile before I fully take this poor blog out of the moth balls and start posting more regularly.

In September I had one of the worst days of my life. I got a call that one of my closest friends had flat-lined while being rushed to the hospital. I spent the day hoping and praying she would be ok and waiting to hear something. I had just talked to Diana a few days prior, she was a bit out of it and the doctors weren't sure why but she seemed like she would be fine. I jokingly told her she wasn't allowed to die because I didn't have time to visit for a funeral (her and I had a slightly twisted sense of humor with each other) and she suddenly got kinda serious and asked me if my boss would let me go to her funeral, I told her that if something happened to her I would not be asking I would be telling and that I would definitely be going. I was totally broadsided to then hear that she had taken such a dramatic turn for the worse so soon after I had spoken to her. That night I called home and after talking to my dad for awhile he figured out that I didn't know that she had passed away earlier that day. I still can't believe she is gone, even though I drove home to attend her funeral as soon as I was safe to do so and saw her body in a casket it is hard to comprehend someone who has been a part of my life since I was a baby and was like a second mother to me no longer being there. It breaks my heart even more knowing that her son, my godson, has lost his mother at such a young age.

Today is the birthday of my dear friend WeaselMomma's daughter Claire, aka Angel Weasel. For those of you who do not know Claire's family will unfortunately be celebrating her 9th birthday at her grave, she passed away two weeks after she was born. Like Diana she brought joy and happiness into this world and left it and those who love her way too soon. I like to think that Diana is helping Claire celebrate her birthday in heaven today, a mother taken from her child too soon and a child taken from her mother too soon, holding each other until they can be reunited with their families. Happy birthday dearest Claire, please give Diana a hug for me and remind her that I love and miss her very much.

Diana and her son in 2007

Happy Birthday Claire

Today is the 8th birthday of a very special little girl. Her name is Claire, she is the daughter of my dear friend WeaselMomma. Claire comes from a beautiful family full of love, my little Niecey and I have had the honor of meeting them and both times we had a blast! Unfortunately we never got to meet Claire, she passed away when she was only two weeks old. Today is a hard day for the Weasels, please remember them in your thoughts and prayers and remember to give your loved ones a little extra love because life is precious and you never know how long you have.

Dear Claire, have a happy birthday up in heaven, you are loved and missed dearly by so many people here, even those like me who never got the chance to meet you.

Note: The organization SIDS of Illinois has helped the Weasel family since Claire passed away. They offer support to families who have lost a baby, education to help prevent SIDS from claiming more babies (In IL incidents of SIDS has gone down 68% with the Back to Sleep campaign!), funds research to try and end SIDS deaths and more. Anyone who wants to support this organization and the invaluable services they provide (the research they fund helps save babies everywhere) can do so here. If you would like to donate in memory of Claire she is listed as "Claire Weasel".

All I Want for Christmas

Music is a funny thing. Music can bring out pretty much every emotion, fear, loathing, sadness, joy, love; the list goes on. Today the song "All I Want for Christmas is You" took on an extra meaning for me and I'm sure quite a few others as well. As any of my regular readers know one of the people that I have befriended through blogging is WeaselMomma. I hero worship should probably have a restraining order filed against me adore her and her family as does my niece who was bummed out that we couldn't visit them during the Thanksgiving holiday and who would have totally abandoned me to live with them had I not insisted she come home with me after visiting Weaselville last year (I am totally serious, it first time the "Well fine you can stay but I'M leaving!" trick did not work on her!). Today WeaselMomma wrote a post about two of her daughters and how this song inspired a sad yet beautiful moment between the three of them:

When most people hear that song they probably think of a romantic relationship, for WeaselMomma it is about Angel Weasel. Claire passed away unexpectedly seven years ago when she was only two weeks old and left a hole that will never be filled in the Weasel family so the song "All I Want for Christmas is You" is a painful reminder of the only person that WeaselMomma really wants but cannot have in this life. The other day when that song came on the radio her eldest daughter saw the pain in her mother's face and did the only thing that she could do for her mother, she gave her a hug and let her mother grieve for the child she lost while holding on to one that she is blessed to still have.

I encourage anyone who reads this to go read the post WeaselMomma wrote, it is a beautiful expression of the love between a mother and her children. If you are like me and wish you could give WeaselMomma a hug and make it all better (not that anyone or anything could make it all better) she gives you a way that you can do so virtually in the form of a donation to SIDS of Illinois, an organization that provides support to bereaved parents and family who have lost an infant, educates people to try and lower the incidence of infant death, works to inform emergency responders on how to be compassionate towards those who have just lost a child, and very importantly provides funding for researchers working to reduce and someday eliminate the incidence of SIDS and other causes infant death. This organization helped the Weasels get through the initial devastation of losing Claire and while it is based in Illinois many of the programs they have developed have been adopted nationally and research they help fund applies to all babies not just those born in Illinois.

If you make a donation in honor of "Claire Weasel" the Weasels will get a notification and know that their Angel Weasel has touched another heart, means something and is remembered by someone outside of her immediate family. From WeaselMomma and other parents who have lost a child I have learned that having their child remembered and matter to someone outside of their family is the greatest gift anyone can give and means the world to them. To sweeten the pot, if you donate and let me know I'll try and get Niecey to make a shout out video to say thank you, who could resist being mentioned in a video by this little imp???:

Please go give WeaselMomma some comment love and a virtual hug of any size you can afford, thanks! =)