Each life that touches ours for good..

My hopes is that I can type this post without crying through the entire thing. It's hard for me to put into words my love for this extraordinary woman. Instead for a minute please bear with me as I recite a hymn our church has that so eloquently depicts my feelings.

Each life that touches ours for good

Reflects thine own great mercy, Lord;

Thou sendest blessings from above

Thru words and deeds of those who love.

What greater gift dost thou bestow,

What greater goodness can we know

Than Christlike friends, whose gentle ways

Strengthen our faith, enrich our days.

When such a friend from us departs,

We hold forever in our hearts

A sweet and hallowed memory,

Bringing us nearer, Lord, to thee.

For worthy friends whose lives proclaim

Devotion to the Savior’s name,

Who bless our days with peace and love,

We praise thy goodness, Lord, above.

*side note... I started this posted on Friday night but couldn't make it through, Sunday morning I had Mickey on my mind alot and hoped that this song wasn't one of our hymns that we sang today because I knew I wouldn't make it through without crying, but what are the odds out of the 300+ songs we have in our book. When we walked in and sat down the organist was playing some prelude music the last song before we started the meeting just happened to be this song. My heart swelled and my eyes filled with tears*

When Erick worked at BYU from long before we were married through the last moments before we moved to Nebraska, he had a boss named Mickey Gubler. She loved Erick and Erick loved her. she took care of her student workers and loved them like her own children. Erick and I would have lunch with her occasionally when we lived there and we would always have such a great time. She treated me like a friend and daughter and not like the wife of one of her employees. We were sad when we moved from Utah because we knew as much as we would love to return it probably wasn't a reality. Erick kept in touch with Mickey constantly by email and instant message since we moved, there were many days when he would come home and his stories would begin with "I was talking to Mickey today..." She and I would exchange emails and Facebook posts about life and our love for our dogs. She often spoke about how we needed to move back to Utah and she could be a surrogate grandma for our future kids and I could be friends with her only daughter Kelcie. Over the last few years when we would go home to California we always would stop and have lunch with Mickey it was so nice to be with her, like we never left.

About a year ago Mickey started to struggle with her health and we were worried about her. She assured us that she beat it and would be as good as new.

Last Tuesday Erick came home somewhat unexpectedly from work. I spun around in my chair to ask him why he as home in the middle of the day, to find him standing in my door way with tears running down his cheeks. Of course I was shocked...I said immediately. "what's wrong?" and all he could say was "Mickey died" I was in a state of shock. I didn't know what to say. He began to tell me that she had gone in for dental work and her heart had stopped and her brain had swelled and they couldn't bring her back. To me it was completely unreal. I almost didn't believe it. Erick made the comment that besides your immediate family there are people that you meet and come to love that are just as close to you as your family. Mickey was our family. Mickey was Erick and my family together. There are people you meet that you couldn't imagine your life without and although we were far away, I couldn't imagine Mickey just not being in our life.

She lived her life for her family and friends. She survived by her husband Jeff, Her son Sam, daughter in law Kristen, Son Sam, Daughter in Law Jenna, Granddaughter Hailey, Daughter Kelcie and Son In law Olin.

She will be forever in my heart and I know she's in Heaven waiting for all of us to come be with her and watching over us.

We love you Mickey and are so grateful for footprints you've left in our hearts.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]