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everyone. 1 felt such a loss when Mom died; I felt with Mugsy that ?it shouldn't have been so painful - the severence of the umbilical cord" - but it was. As time goes on that loss is replaced with a sure, clear, solid, whole, unmistakable certainty that Mom's "life has been changed, not taken away". It was terrible at first not to see what she "thought about this", or to hear the advice given about tnat . I have come to be" certain of things I do not see, feel the "substance of things hoped for..." Mom and Daddy are with us still. Our lives go on without them, but honestly they continue to be with us - we feel them. If they are not actively with us, seeing to things, interested in all that we do, supplying that strong presence in Waveland which periodically brought us all together - they are here -watching us as	we	try to go on attending to our	lives;
pulling for us	as	we, to quote Bootsie, "fix what needs
fixing" and I think, wishing like anything that they could intervene sometimes. They left us a legacy and I think it is this: life is a gift - a gift to be used to win a better life - in eternity - one that knows of no good-byes and one that, to use Mom's own words, "goes by so quickly" but which is "so much fun";	and when I ponder what Daddy	said to	me
at the end, it	makes me even look forward to my	going -	he
said, "111 be waiting for all of you". I really think they miss us as much as we miss them.
I kept a journal of Mom and Daddy throughout their illnesses and deaths - a journal of faith and powerfuul graces which ensued after they died and I covered each little section with an appropriate saying: on Daddy's I put - "Didn't you know you were my hero, the wind under my wings?" and on Mom's little book I put - "We have been friends together". I could have written both on both. That is the kind of parents and frienas they were. I hope I have set the stage for future generations to know them - just a little - the way I have .
Flight #837 will soar over the pacific on June 25; I'll be one of the passengers. I'll be wisked off to a missionary post. It is true what Nana said to me shortly before she went to behold Beauty in all its essence: "You have to wait until the evening to see how splendid was the day". That, day when "lift" is in operation CA1 tried to explain this to me one time) and knowing the "wind" under those "wings" - it will be an exhilarating experience. In fact, I know now, not only Mom and Daddy are that "wind" but all of you about whom 1 have just written - and in a special way Jo, Sue, Mugsy, Di, Bootsie, Al, Trish and Jody, too. My roots ARE my wings. Thanks, Mom and Daddy - Blanchards, Sbisas. Thanks, all of ya' 1 1 .
I can't wait to start planting some "Chinese wisteria".
Respect fu11y,