Love My Mailbox...most of the time

I really do love my mailbox, most of the time. I still don't like the days there are nothing but bills, political ads, and or junk mail greeting me. Nor do I like having to put less than happy things back in the mailbox to leave my house - you know what I mean, checks to pay a bill... Having to write letters or cards of sympathy would also go in that list of non-happy mailbox contents. Unfortunately, that was my unhappy lot in life earlier this week.

My best friend lost her mom on Saturday night after a short fight with an infection that left her kidneys and liver not working. She died peacefully in her sleep with her family around her. No one can ask for more.
Barbara had been a part of our lives for much of the past 20 years, as we have been a part of her daughter and son-in-law's lives. She was such a wonderful lady. Always one for a competitive game of scrabble, a loud and raucous game of Texas Washers, or a quiet quest to finish a particularly challenging jigsaw puzzle.


Scrabble!!!

Texas Washers - Barabara showing the youngsters how it is played.

Happy Birthdays....

Barbara and much of her family, including my husband and I.

Babara's family is our "Foster Family." We travel and celebrate almost every occasion with them. I really felt I needed to write a note to each of her descendants. Therefore, I spent Sunday and Monday making cards and write personal notes to each of her kids and grand kids along with their families. Sympathy is really not an easy emotion to express. No word choice seems good enough. I did find a few websites that contained some wonderful examples. Reading through the ideas on these pages helped my come up with at least a few words. (Sympathy note ideas and Sympathy Sayings.) I hope will bring some support or comfort to each the recipients. I ended up drafting a basic letter and used this to guide my words to each individual.

The card I made for each family was my take on a card I found on the Cricut Message Boards, made by djackson1952. The bird and branch are from Home Decor. I am sorry I cannot remember what I ended up for the sizes. I believe the Bird was 3" and the branch was 2". I embossed the white paper with Cuttlebug - Divine Swirls. I dug through all my flowers to find small ones appropriate for the branches. I added dots of liquid pearl in the center.

Can you see I tried practicing my calligraphy (yep, taking a class) on the Paper Source envelopes.

I hope they will find some comfort in this small token of my love for them and their mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

We will miss Barbara. She was a very special part of our lives.