Thank you, Mom!

January 1978

This past Monday, November 24th, was the 14th anniversary of my mom's early entrance into Heaven! She lost her 1 1/2 year battle with brain cancer on the morning of Thanksgiving day 1994, at the age of 47.  I remember the exact moment like it was yesterday!

It was very hard,  as a 16 year old girl, not having my mom around when I needed her.(Thankfully, I had many friends and family who supported me greatly.) Now, as I have my own daughter, I find that I miss her even more! There's so many things I wish I could ask her. I wish she could be here to hold, kiss, and care for Mia.  I now realize just how much love she had for my sisters and me, and how difficult it must have been knowing that she wasn't going to be around to raise us.

As I think back about my teenage years, I always regret that I wasn't the "perfect" daughter. I wish I wouldn't have talked back  or been disrespectful at times. But that's in the past now. I can't dwell on it, or I'd go insane. All I can say is.....Thank you, Mom.....for modeling a love for Christ and all people, your compassion for others, your helpfulness, your kindness and so much more! We love you!!

The picture below was taken on my mom's 45th birthday, about a year before we found out she had cancer.

Kathleen Ann Eaton Cusack~Feb. 3, 1947-Nov. 24, 1994

We will always love and remember you forever! We miss you!

 

Maco, Mia, Kelly, Ryan, and I went to visit Mom's grave. This was the first place we took Mia after leaving the hospital when she was born!(And it was the first place we went after Josiah's 20 week ultrasound when we found out he wasn't expected to survive.)It's a special place for us!

The back of the headstone says Shine through Me with musical notes surrounding the cross. Some of you may not know that my mom was a singer, and her dream was to record an album. So, before she died her wish came true. She recorded, "Shine Through Me". One of the songs on the album is called, "How Beautiful", which became a very popular wedding song a few years back.  One of my favorite moments at our wedding was when Maco and I lit a special candle while my mom's voice filled the chapel singing the song, "How Beautiful"! She must have known when she recorded the song ten years earlier that someday it would be played on our special day!

My mother was an amazing woman who did her best to live for Christ each and every day! I only hope that I can take what she taught me in 16 years and pass it on to Mia and our future children. If I do, I know they will do wonderful things in this world!