As I am putting up the Christmas Tree, I am reminded on my sweet Momma. She loved Christmas. She loved buying gifts for everyone. She loved to decorate the whole house....even the bathroom, she loved to cook and have parties at her house.
This was Momma with our kids on the day we decorated her last Christmas tree. She was so happy to have the kids there. We ordered pizza like we always did. We were able to reminisce about all of our favorite ornaments, and of course, she bossed us around about where to put which one, ha!
Momma's tree was always filled with homemade ornaments and snowflakes and icicles that Granny had made. But this year she let Annabeth hang a green paper snowflake that she had made on the tree. She joked that she was just an old lady trying to get into heaven.
Momma's friend Cynthia came from Ohio to stay with momma for a week and help take care of her. She wrapped momma's Christmas presents. Momma had given Dwayne a list and he was the secret shopper. She even picked our special gifts and had him buy them for each of us, knowing that it was her last Christmas with us. She made him promise that if it looked like she would not make it to December 25th, that we were to open our special gifts early so she could see us open them. We knew that her time was drawing near, so on December 20th, 2009 we got the family together and had Christmas. Complete with Annabeth playing the Nutcracker on the recorder. Austin had made Momma a Mrs. Pots and Chip from Beauty and the beast. It was a sweet time. We opened our special gifts.
This was Annabeth's special gift. She gave all of us girls an open heart angel necklace, so we could be reminded that she was always in our hearts.
She had a money clip engraved for Dwayne that said "You married my daughter and became my son".
She had a pocket watch engraved for Austin that says "Learn from yesterday, Live for today, Hope for tomorrow.
Little did we know, within hours of opening our special gifts, she would draw her last breath.
This is our last picture together, the night of our special Christmas. She was gone within hours of this being taken. I cannot describe the pain that I felt. Not even the loss of my baby boy could compare to this loss. Maybe because I only knew Nathan for a short time, but momma was also my friend. I talked to her every day on the phone. She made me laugh, she ticked me off (whose mom doesn't), we shared good times and bad together. I can honestly say that as time has gone on, it has gotten some easier, but then there are days that I really miss her and just want to see her face and hear her voice. I love her with all of my heart.....still.
While I was looking at pictures for this little blog, I do find myself looking for pictures of her laughing and smiling more, not looking quite so much at pictures of her during her last days when you could see the life slipping away from her. One thing about Barbara Ann Trammel Thorne, she loved to laugh. Momma, I know that is where I get my laugh from. I love you more than words can express. Missing you this Christmas.
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