Thank You GRACE - 1267468

We are all very happy for both of you!! Congratulations all around!

-Dr. West

I love you guys and your story.

I'm going to admit here that I couldn't understand your story at first. Don and I seemed to be on the same trajectory as the 4 of you, nowhere was life simple and all seemed overwhelming scary so I didn't try to explain my feelings to myself and believed in the 2 of you. But as time passed I watched you give space and comfort as needed and go about the work of living. Through it all y’all respected the lives and love of Liz and Mark. It’s amazing.

Today I love your story and understand the connection, the partnership and I think the 2 of you are a romance for the books. Congratulations on the happiness you find in each other.

Janine

Thank you, Dr. West and Janine.

To tell the truth, Janine, at first I found it hard to believe myself. A few years ago, when a neighbor lost his wife to breast cancer and was remarried within a year, Liz and I couldn't understand. But I guess you can't unless you walk the same path.

I never thought I would or could ever find love again, and I didn't really want it. It took an extraordinary fellow GRACE member and many long, heartfelt and often tearful conversations to get there. To echo Lisa's sentiment, for all that GRACE has done for me during Liz' illness and after, my gratitude to Dr. West and the GRACE community is immeasurable.

JimC
Forum moderator

I'm back lurking too, not sure why - perhaps because I'm just a day or two away from the date I received that sickening phone call from my brother, "I'm sick - and it's bad." I'm so thankful for GRACE and the help and encouragement it provided during those few short months. Unfortunately, my brother waited too long to see a doctor and (I found out after he passed) only palliative care was intended from the beginning.

Grateful for the gifts bestowed during his illness - for a husband who gave sacrificially so that I could spend a week with my brother and give his wife a break from care-giving. For seeing altruism in my high-school and college age children, who pooled their meager funds to buy me a second airline ticket to see him one last time. For the laughs I shared with my brother over bald heads, bathroom accidents, and childhood antics. For apologies, forgiveness, and new life promised beyond the grave.

A little boy in my 4th grade classroom is trying to handle Christmas for the first time since losing his mama, so I'll do my best to send understanding and tenderness his way. To shield him from classmates who snicker when his eyes fill with tears every afternoon. While we're all people who don't know each other, somehow we're all in this together.