The Funeral

Funeral services for my mother will be held on Saturday, September 12, 2009, 10:00 am at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5001 Altamesa Blvd., Ft. Worth, TX 76133.

The viewing will be Friday, September 11, 2009, 6:00 - 8:00 pm at Laurel Land Funeral Home 7100 Crowley Rd, Ft. Worth, TX 76134 and at 9:00 am on Saturday prior to the services.

Today Anne Marie flies in and Allison and John fly in on Friday! I cannot wait to get my arms around my kids, I need them right now....to have them close by.

Everyone has been very kind with food, notes, and comments on FB and my blog, I really look forward to sitting down finally in the wee hours of the morning and reading what everyone has said. It has meant a lot to me and has really meant a lot to my Dad, as I have read him what everyone has said about Mother!

Now, that I am more myself again, I have a few more things that I feel I can share:

When Mom seemed to be hanging on I started to pray for her Mom and Dad to come and get her so she wouldn't have to suffer any longer. Right after Mom passed away, I was telling my sister Elizabeth this and she said, "Well I certainly hope they had LaDean in their arms when they came" to which I told her that I was sure that they would. When I told my cousin about this she said, "Wow, isn't that a picture"! And it really is an amazing picture that I can now see in my minds eye!

One of my friends MA said that she thought it was fitting that my mother would die on Labor day "Lois, I felt it was appropriate that your mother chose labor day to leave this life. She labored in so many ways to bring joy to so many both in music and doing family research. She made it possible for her family and friends to always celebrate her life's labor by always remembering her on Labor Day. She will be remembered for the valiant life she lived by all who knew her, and it is a time to celebrate her labor as being done in this life. I'm sure there are thousands celebrating her return. You truly have been blessed with wonderful parents."

Along with this comment it reminded me of something I found out --- while we were all telling our special memory and/or experience with Mom almost all of us told about something Mom had done that was giving service that she just did because she wanted to or knew there was a need that she could fill...and she never did it for the recognition or praise she just quietly went about doing it.....Whenever we would tell of something Dad would say...."I didn't even know she did that"

My mother had a great group of friends that they do things with....but it was really fun for me to see the younger sisters in our Ward get her sense of humor and wit and really appreciate her! Here is what I read to my Dad from one of these younger women: "We love you, Lois and loved your mother. She was a wonderful woman and I'm so glad that I got to spend time with her in Primary. She always had me laughing during Junior Primary with her funny remarks or just a look that she'd give me. She really was special and will be greatly missed." When I shared this with my Dad he said....."and Mom really loved her too"! Which I knew was true!

My sister Kim, when we were all telling about what we remembered about Mom, she told about how many lives our mother had touched with her hands, whether it was by her sewing baby clothes for a baby that didn't have a cute frilly dress, cooking , playing the piano or organ, leading an orchestra or choir, quilting, her genealogy work, temple service and the list just went on and on, it was a very special moment for all of us to realize that she was always quietly doing the Lord's work!

I Know that when the movie "Music of My Heart" came out that my sisters and I said that they always thought of mom when they saw the movie or heard the song, but I didn't know that George did and that he had even given the song to mom and sang it to her when she was having her Whipple surgery! He said that Mom always believed in him and that when he would say that he wanted to be a sports agent, others would say, yeah, that's nice George and chuckle or something like that, but Mom was in designing his business cards and Stationary! Everyone needs a Mom like that! We were the lucky ones who got her!