My Dear Cousin Wendy

My heart is so full today. It is the last few hours or days of my dear cousin's life and I am so sad for her, her family, her children, and all those of us who love her and will miss her. This is a picture of my very most favorite memory of her.


Her laugh is infectious. Her smile, so "Wendy". Her talents, amazing. She has always loved everyone else more than herself. She once wrote me the sweetest note telling me how much she loved me and mailed it to me out of the clear blue. I was so touched. I loved it when she would drive her parents out to AZ to do the Briar Patch craft show with us. They always brought such fun crafts to do.

I'll never forget the time that she and her sisters were here with Lisa and me. They had come in from Oregon and California for a "Briar Patch/Crafting Cousins" weekend. Of course, we made our initial stop at IHOP for breakfast before heading to the Briar Patch. We were all laughing so hard, we thought the manager was going to ask us to leave or quiet down.

After the Briar Patch, we all headed back to Auntie's to do some crafts. It would have been even more fun had my sisters and mom been there, and Lisa's sister too, but for various reasons, they couldn't be.Wendy was so hot the whole time she was here. One night, we were all sitting around the pool with our feet in it cooling off. It was about 9 or 10 p.m. at night. All of a sudden, she pulls her fake boob out of her bra and starts floating it across the pool, making jokes about sticking a candle on it. Then, she did something none of us expected...she got up and jumped into the pool...fully clothed. She was laughing so loud and screaming. It was like a huge release for her. Soon, all four of the rest of us girls did the same thing! Here we were, five grown adult women jumping around in a swimming pool, fully-clothed, whooping and hollering. Her parents and Lisa's parents were all sitting out on the patio talking and they just watched us in utter amazement. They later said it was like we were all little girls again, just free and full of life. We finally got out of the pool and headed inside to change out of our wet clothes. We were all in Lisa's bathroom, naked, drying off, powdering without a care in the world. No thoughts of breast cancer. No concerns about body shape or size. No cares in the world. Just laughter and love. We each put on a loungy nightgown of Lisa's and headed downstairs. We put on the movie "My Best Friend's Wedding" and sat down together on the sofa. It wasn't much longer and the parents came in and found all five of us snuggled up together, sound asleep.

It was a memory I will never forget.

I love you, Wendy. Go into our Heavenly Father's arms...and please tell my mom I love and miss her...and that I'm sorry. She'll know what it means.