This is Miss Gae Beckstrom. We always called her Miss Gae, she was a school teacher. She was my first YW president when I was a kid. She served in YW's up until I went to college. I even babysat her kids a time or two.
I was lucky enough to have continued a relationship with her through out the years. She bought Rebekah her first pair of Hiking Boots.
almost 4 years ago she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and I was able to watch from afar while she struggled with this disease.
When my parents returned home from their mission, my mother, who is a nurse was able to spend a great deal of time with Gae. She took her to doctors appointments, shopping and helped clean her house.
At the beginning of the school year, her condition took a sudden turn. She was discovered to have 200 tumors all throughout her body, many of which had ruptured making it impossible for her to have an MRI because of the intense pain of sitting in one position too long.
I was aware that she wasn't going to be around much longer, so I went to visit her a few weeks ago.
We talked for an hour of life and what was going on with all of her children. I am facebook or blog stalkers with most of them, so I was aware of a lot of things that were happening in her extended family life. Most of all we laughed.
One of the things that we laughed about most was when she died she was going to make sure and be in the line or "why didn't I get a beautiful singing voice" Her oldest two daughters were blessed with this talent and I sang with them on numerous occasions. That was her first
priority when getting to the other side. The next line she wanted to be in was for the Butterfly Committee. She wanted to make sure that butterfly's were kept beautiful and unique for the world.
It really got me thinking about what line I would stand in. We discussed patience, but decided that the line for that one was probably really long and I wouldn't have the patience to stand in it.
When she finally passed away on Thursday morning, I was once again shocked at how many memories I had of her and what an impact she had
on my life.
In an effort to help me feel as though I had done something for her, I asked my friend Andy at www.poppiesatplay.blogspot.com to design something to give to each of her kids.
In no time at all she had created this wonderful tribute to my friend. I can't wait to give it Erin, Emily, Adam and Jamilyn.
6 comments:
so sorry for your loss, she looks like she was a wonderful woman... no matter how old they are when they are taken, it is still hard for those of us still here. There was this book I read called " the message" that is helping me deal with trent's mom's death.
There are so many wonderful memories of Miss Gae. Thanks for posting this. I wish I could've visited with her myself. I can totally see her on the butterfly committee. What a wonderful daughter of God!
Love the printable!
Thanks for the tears. What a woman you are. You are such a good friend!
Janet that was such a sweet tribute to an obviously amazing woman! Thanks for sharing that! I didn't know her, but after reading this, I WISH I had! She was clearly blessed to have the influence of such incredible youth in her life! Love you, miss you and so sorry for the loss of such a great lady!
You should add a "like" button to your blog. Glad I ran across both of your posts here about Gae. Thanks for sharing!
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