Remembering Toni

This post is going to be a little rambling, but I need it to be. Yesterday my mother-in-law passed away. She was an amazing woman, always giving and never demanding. I really wish my daughters could have known her and she could have known them the way she would have wanted. 

Toni had a brain anuerysm almost eleven years ago. After that she was in a nursing home. When we would visit when Melodye was younger, she called Toni "Grandma in the hospital." After Brooke was born, Toni's name was changed to Grandma Toni and Brooke has been told many many times that part of her name comes from her Grandma Toni because we love her so much.

At the same time of this being a sad time for the family, it is also a happy time. Toni is now in heaven and not restricted by anything like she had been for the last decade. She is able to move and talk. She is with her mom and dad. She is able to check in on all of us. It is a blessing because we know she is in heaven without a doubt.

Last night I stayed up looking for pictures of Toni. (On a sidenote I am so grateful that I signed up for Library of Memories. Looking for her pictures reinforced that I need to follow the Library of Memories example. It would have been much easier to go straight to a drawer to find the pictures filed under Toni's name.) I found more pictures than I thought I would, but at the same time I made a realization. Toni took many pictures. She would always say "I am going to take 2." But the pictures were always of other people. She was usually behind the camera. I told Tommy that we need to make sure that we are included in the pictures so that the girls won't ever have the problem of finding enough pictures that have their parents in them singularily, as a couple, or as a family.

I really loved Toni and I am going to miss her deeply.