I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a Fabulous New Year celebration. We had my entire family in from out of town and it was wonderful. We shared New Year’s Eve with some old friends and that was glorious, too.

But this New Year started off with a great loss to our family. My husband’s Father passed away from pancreatic cancer on Saturday, January 4th.

Oh, he was a fighter. He was given 3 months to live, yet lived well for another TWO YEARS! He was no stranger to cancer, actually. Over the past three years, he battled 3 types of cancer and he beat them all…until this one.

I write this with a heavy heart because it happened so recently and I’m still feeling much sadness. But I hold the hope of a lighter heart because I know he is free from the pain, and I know that we will someday see him again.

He worked hard all the way up until November 2013…you see, he was a HARD WORKER and he taught his kids the value of hard work. He was an example of dedication, loyalty, compassion, honesty, integrity, and creativity. He was an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright and an amazing architect. I love that he taught his son (my husband) how to build, create and fix things!

His dream was to purchase a home he built many, many years ago and fix it up again. He did that. He wanted a comfortable place for his sweetheart to live and he had dreams of changing a few things. Over the last year, my in-laws began working on the house and moving their belongings over. But he was not able to finish…and I know he lasted this long because he desperately wanted to know that his wife would be ok.

Well, Opa…we will continue to help her in finishing the dream. We love you and we will miss you!  Thank you for your influence in my life.

I imagine that he is now seeing far more beautiful scenery than these flower fields we visited together just last April 2013 (and before his last fight with pancreatic cancer).

For any of you who have seen cancer at work…I am sorry. It is not an easy challenge.
My wish for you, dear readers, is a year filled with wonder and beauty. I know it can be so, if we just look around. Hugs.