As I write this letter to you today, I cannot help but reflect back to fifteen years ago.  It was  sunny and beautiful, with the hints of Fall beginning to make their appearance.  I cannot help but be overwhelmed with a surge of so many different emotions.  I could write on and on about how I wish things could have been different, or how one learns to live in joy again when someone you love so deeply leaves you so quickly.  But these are all topics for another day.

Today, my heart and soul are overwhelmingly and unequivocally filled with LOVE and GRATITUDE for YOU. Your physical presence has been absent for 15 years now, and we all miss that so much.  As I heard from so many people, you always knew how to have fun Liz — even when there seemed to be no fun to be had.

I will always remember our last Thanksgiving — after a wonderful meal we played a game — it was charades of sorts.  You chose the word thimble and your task was to get us to say it.  Only problem, you had no idea what a thimble was used for — so you described it as only you could — as a “finger condom” — much to my chagrin and embarrassment as your grandmother and great aunt sat nearby!  There isn’t a Thanksgiving that goes by that we don’t talk about you and remember and laugh about your “finger condom.”

I will be forever grateful to my family, my friends, and all of your friends, Liz.  They all continue to boldly speak your name at every opportunity and we all remember and smile and sometimes we just laugh.  Your friends have gone on to live wonderful, productive lives.  They are husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, teachers, business people, psychologists, doctors, nurses, interpreters, and many other things.  And it is good, it is all so good!

You taught us all so many things through your death.  You taught me most of all that love never dies, even if people do.  There are no words to adequately thank you for reaching out so quickly in those first days, weeks and months, to let me know — to let us all know — that you were fine — you were living a wonderful, new marvelous life — and you continue to make your presence known — even today — and I am SO GRATEFUL.

Roger, Anna and I REALIZE that because of YOU, we are better people — and it is so true Liz.  You opened up new possibilities in each of our lives that were completely foreign and even scary to us, and you walked with each of us every step of the way.  Because of YOU we each do what we can to make this world a better place — and WE ARE GRATEFUL because of YOU.

We continue to be a family of four, we continue to live in love each and every day because of YOU.

So on this day, I say THANK YOU Liz.  YOU have made a difference — in our lives and in the lives of many others.

Well done, good and faithful servant — until we meet again.

Love Always,

Mom

2 Timothy 4:7^{:  “}I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

  Elizabeth Jean Wencl     9/12/83  –  9/20/03