Finish and Love Strong
Many people find enjoyment in starting new things. Why? I think it’s because starting something new delivers a rush to our brains and makes us feel energized. But what about finishing things? We get a new book with high hopes of reading it but don't get beyond the first chapter. We make plans for starting a new diet but never get beyond the first step. We join the gym but never go. The truth of the matter is that many of us never finish what we start.
But not Grace. She was born on March 26th and died on March 25th. I think she demonstrated 'perfect grace' in how she completed her very last year, her 14th to be exact, on this planet. Grace finished what she started.
Being with Grace when she died was simultaneously an unfathomable and pinnacle experience, something I wouldn’t trade for anything - except her life. On that Palm Sunday afternoon in March 2018, as I laid next to Grace, a few seconds after she stopped breathing, she was still there. A few seconds later, she was not. But she wasn't taken, I am certain she left.
I will forever be thankful for the gift of this incredible young person I was fortunate to call my child who did the miraculous – she journeyed deep into the waters of a terminal illness, shape-shifted magically before our eyes with a faithful spirit and hopeful heart and swam off. When she left us almost six years ago, it was an innocent betrayal based on a simple misunderstanding on my part…I thought she would stay with us forever.
Thank you for continuing to honor not just Grace’s memory, but Caroline’s loss as well. Because not only did Grace lose the ability to speak and tell her story on March 25, 2018, but so did Caroline. On that day when I shared with Caroline that Grace had died, in that moment, Caroline also could no longer speak. But not because she no longer had a voice. Caroline could no longer speak because the heartbreak was so thick that it not only choked out the oxygen in the room, but also the words that Caroline wanted to say but found impossible to express.
Your willingness 6 years later to continue supporting research being done at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center in memory of Grace and in honor of Caroline inspires me to hold firm to faith, love, courage, and above all, hope. By continuing to choose hope over everything else, then Grace will never be gone. And that’s because as Grace taught us all…Hope Has No Finish Line.