[tri-wings] Off topic - lost a friend

Good morning!
I'm supposed to be celebrating today.  It is our 36th wedding  
anniversary.  Our daughter and granddaughter came home last night to  
take us out to supper (sorry - yah, Minn-e-SO-ta!)  But she only came  
home because we are having a memorial service for a very dear friend  
that I've known since early teens.  I talked her into teaching piano  
to Cheryl when Cheryl was only 6.  The rule around here was that no  
one started until they were in 3rd grade.  By then, they would truly  
have the desire.  Jane knew I wouldn't keep bugging her if I wasn't  
serious.  She had never taught piano before, but she was a teacher  
and she played the piano beautifully.  She finally agreed after  
getting advice from the "sage" of piano teachers in town.  Cheryl was  
her first student in a career of many, many students.   Jane played  
the piano at Cheryl's wedding.  Everyone else had a organist.  Cheryl  
chose Jane and the piano.

Three years ago, they discovered breast cancer.  She had a total  
mastectomy and reconstruction surgery and everything else that the  
doctors suggested.  She was always "up beat", and by the time her  
husband had retired at the end of the school year, she was cancer- 
free and ready to move to the Black Hills where they had planned to  
retire.  Great place!  We could all go visit!  ;*)

About a month after they moved, she started realizing that something  
wasn't right.  She came back to the Sioux Falls doctors who had been  
her specialists for the previous bout.  They found a tumor at the  
base of the brain, top of her spinal column - inoperable.  None of us  
knew what they found, just that it was cancer again.  She went  
through all of the treatments.  Lost lots of cognition.  She needed  
help to walk.  Couldn't always talk.  And when she did, it rarely  
made sense.  She lost lots of weight and finally, last Wednesday, her  
body gave up.  She spent a year and a half fighting this tumor and  
more.  Her husband is a saint.  (Very dry humor, but none the less, a  
saint.)  She has 3 boys - one in college, one teaching in Norway, and  
one who moved home to help his dad. She didn't want to see people,  
but the pictures always showed her smiling.

I have lost a very good friend and am going to celebrate her life on  
this, my anniversary.  I feel guilty to feel cheated.  Of not being  
able to visit her. Of having to give up my 'day' of celebration.  And  
yet, I'm so proud to be able to call her and her husband my friends.

Thanks for listening!
Love you all,
Sheila Helleson
Minnesota Grandma to:  Hope (T-18 ^i^ 11-1-1) & Alison; Cadence and  
Bridge
Mom to Cheryl (& Denny);  Wade (& Charity)
Wife to Richard for 35 years

"Shared joy is double joy, and shared sorrow is half-sorrow."--  
Swedish Proverb

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is a beauty, admire it.  
Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a  
duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise,  
fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it.  
Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life  
is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. LIFE IS LIFE, FIGHT  
FOR IT!-Mother Teresa

Laughter and tears are the healing medicines of God.





                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
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