Debbie

Tank: Old Navy Cardigan: Target Jeans: NY&C Flats: Payless Necklace: From Debbie

April 20th is a special day in my family.  It's the day that my mom's step-mom, Debbie, passed away from a nearly year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.  I've written about Debbie before, when talking about her love for polka dots, but I wanted to share more about her.

Debbie and my grandpa got married several years before I was born, so she was in my life from the moment I was born, and was very much my third grandma.  You couldn't have met a sweeter person.  Debbie had the most gentle spirit.  She was generous and loving, and although my brother, cousins, and I were not her biological grandchildren, she loved us like we were.

I am one of those weird people who saves old voicemails from people so I can listen to their voices whenever I want.  I have a voicemail that Debbie left me in the fall of 2009, about 6 months before she died.  We were getting together to celebrate my mom and dad's 25th wedding anniversary and she wanted to know what kind of cake everyone in my family liked.  At the time, she was battling her cancer, doing aggressive treatments and on a clinical trial, but she still wanted to make the celebration as special as possible - that's just the kind of person she was.  I love having this voicemail, and I listen to it often.  Sometimes I'll play it for my grandpa so he can hear her voice again, and he smiles the whole time.

This necklace was Debbie's.  When she died, she wanted me to have it.  It was a special necklace to her, and she wore it all the time.  I love wearing it, because it makes me feel close to her.  I had a dream about her after she died, and she was wearing this necklace in the dream.  I have worn it every year on the anniversary of her passing, and will continue to do so.

Here is a picture of Grandpa and Debbie on their 25th wedding anniversary - she's wearing the necklace :)  What a beautiful woman.