P.S. I love you

.....no, not the movie......although I thought it was really good, and this is coming from a non-chick flick kinda gal. (I watched it, ironically, on Valentine's Night with my mother-in-law while Josh was at work)

No...I was reminded last night on how important it is to say these three special words all the time.

So I like to read at least one book each night to N. We usually take out about 10 story books from the library and she just grabs one each night. I am finally figuring out that taking out this many causes me to constantly pay late fees as we don't get through all of them by the time they are due back....hence me trying to make this a short post so I can return the stack and pay my $2.35 today.

Last night, she chose an Angelina Ballerina book......and when I opened the cover, there was a label/sticker that brought me back to a sad time. The sticker read:

Donated in Memory of
Kaitlyn Dawn Rogers
2003

(I changed her last name to protect their privacy)

Katie was the older sister of my son H's friend, Adam. She was about 12 years old, if I remember correctly. She had a case of the flu and wasn't feeling too well one week. Her mom decided to take her into the hospital when it was going on 3 days of constant vomiting and other flu-like symptoms such as dizziness and headaches. Her mom feared dehydration and was advised to bring her in. The hospital was treating Katie for the flu and administered fluids. I believe they ran some routine bloodwork as well.

This was a Friday.....early evening.

Sunday night, Katie passed away.

Apparently, she had a tumor in her brain that was pressing on a certain area causing the dizziness and vomiting. This was only discovered with an autopsy. There was no way anyone could have guessed this and unless they would have ran MRIs or CT scans. I just don't want to turn this into the "should've, could've, would've" issue. This was clearly an unfortunate situation where it all happened so quickly, it was hard for even the doctors to process.

My heart was broken for Katie's family. I cannot imagine this happening. Parents are not supposed to outlive their children.

What broke my heart even more was that her mom, Gail decided to go home on that Sunday afternoon, just to get a change of clothes and take a shower. Something strange happened when her mom was heading out the door.....Katie told her that she was afraid for her to leave. Of course, there was no reason to believe that Katie was in any danger or dire situation and Gail reassured her that she would be back within the hour.

During that hour, Katie slipped into her fatal coma.

I am not sure what exactly happened that Sunday evening....I never really felt comfortable asking Gail the details. She told me that as soon as she walked through her door at home, the phone rang and it was the hospital telling her of Katie's unexpected spiral downward. She called her husband who was working to meet her at the hospital and told Adam he needed to come with her as well. I can envision the whole family surrounded her bedside and telling her many times how much they loved her. I am sure they told her many things that they wanted her to know. I am quite certain many prayers were said in that short time. But it was time for Katie to go to Jesus.

H tried to spend as much time with Adam following Katie's death. They had recently moved here and Adam didn't really have too many friends. I know he confided in H a few times about how he felt horrible as Katie and he had their share of normal sibling riffs. He felt guilty for the mean things he said that past week to her. He wished he could take it all back and have her around.

I won't claim to know why God chose to take Katie home at such a young age. I have no idea on why He chose to have it happen so quickly. All I can say, is that God has a reason for everything. God knew when Katie was going to die. I believe that He has everyone's life written in His Book. I believe that we die, when we have served our purpose here on Earth. It may not make any sense to the people we leave behind, it may leave us angry, hurt or with feelings of guilt...

....but it will all be explained to us when we meet Him.

So....I just felt compelled to remind everyone, including myself......that it is so important to tell your family and friends how much they mean to you......every day.

And something that *I* really need to work on.....

When we have our arguments and spats with spouses, children, family (and we all will).......
choose being kind over being right.

Think before you choose words that will be hurtful/negative.

Be slow to anger.

Be quick to forgive.



Have a blessed weekend~
*~Michelle~*