Today my mother-in-law would have been 51. I miss her dearly. I wish she could be here for my girls. For sister-in-law, who has become one of my closest friends. For my husband. For my nieces. So that my husband could have a father again. When Laurie died, he lost both his mother and father. Thankfully, he has become incredibly close with my parents, especially my father. I can't even imagine what Toni and Vinny feel, losing their mother at such a young age. I still feel an emptiness, and she wasn't even my biological mother. We spent a lot of time together, the last two years of her life. Esp. once she got diagnosed that the breast cancer had moved to the bones. I would take her to her chemo, or her blood transfusions, as would my mom when I was at school. Altho, honestly, up until the day she died, I was in denial the entire time. I figured she would beat it. She was to good of a person, to close to God, to selfless, to loving, to wonderful of a person to die. She had a whole family, 5 young granddaughters. Madalyn was just over a year old. I try to say that everything happens for a reason. Altho, I can find no reason on this earth why God would have taken her. I know she is in a better place, and I honestly don't think she was scared to die, she was so calm about it, even tho it seemed to happen so suddenly. None of us were prepared, we were all in denial, despite the fact that she had been battling cancer for 3 years. The last 4 days of her life, I will never forget. I think they are permanently engraved in all of our memories. She will forever be in our hearts. RIP. 01/05/1961-06/02/2009