Thought of the Day

Sean and I went to a funeral yesterday for the mother of one of Sean's closest friends. It was a very nice service. Chad's mom was a single mom and he is the only child. His mom battled cancer for 11 years. In fact, she found out she had cancer 5 days after Chad went into the MTC. Throughout Chad's life she worked 2-3 jobs to provide for him. During the service they talked about some of her journal entries from the past year and the amount of pain she was in. I was astonished to learn of the extremities of pain she dealt with on a daily basis. I visited with Martine several times and never knew how much pain she was in. No one did. That's what is so amazing about her. Whenever I saw her, all she wanted to talk about was Carter and how we were doing. On the way into the chapel there was a display of some of her things. One thing that stood out to me was a plaque that said, "Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass, but learning how to dance in the rain." I think Martine truly lived by this statement and after listening to the service yesterday, I was touched by the example she was to all around her. She had a pretty tough life but she dealt with it and moved on. I think she passed this quality onto Chad. At the end of the service he said a few words. He said he has been feeling a little guilty because people have been asking him how he is doing and he is doing ok. He said is doing ok because he knows without a shadow of a doubt that he will see his mom again. I hope I can learn to "dance in the rain" like Martine and Chad throughout the storms of life.