Saying "Goodbye"

Madaline Pettifor  9/10/1928 - 3/25/2012

Spring is breaking out around my home here in beautiful Mid-Michigan, in stark contrast to the personal difficulties our family has been facing in the last couple of weeks.  After a rather swift decline and around two weeks in the hospital, my husband's dear mother went home to be with her Lord on March 25th.  Between his visits to see her, constant phone calls and messages updating us on her condition, and, finally, the funeral, our lives have been in a bit of chaos.  Our sadness with her passing cannot come close to comparing with Dad's loss of his wife and companion of almost 54 years.  As we transition to life without Mom and Grandma, we recognize that our lives will never be the same, and the void she has left can never be filled.  Our children are struggling to understand and cope with the death of someone very special to them, the first great loss they have ever experienced.  We seek to remember her as she was in life, loving her family and friends and serving her Lord, not those last days that were marked by discomfort, pain and illness.  While we mourn for that which we have lost, we rejoice that she has gained freedom, peace, and joy unspeakable in the presence of Jesus! You will be missed, Mom!