Due to circumstances beyond our control (we are sure you have heard that before!) we are far behind on our blogging and therefore need to repent and get caught up. Our plan is to update each month since Sept. 2009, with a few pictures and information about what we did during that time. BUT before I start with September, I want to blog a short tribute to my Mom. She passed away on Dec. 24th 2009. We were able to go home to Utah from our mission in Hawaii from Dec. 18, 2009 to Jan. 5, 2010 to help and be with her and to assist the family with her funeral. It was a blessing for us to do that and to be with our family for Christmas.
MY MOTHER…JOYCE LOURENE MILLER EDWARDS
Nov. 20, 1926 – Dec, 24, 2009
My mother passed away Dec. 24, 2009. She had been sick for several months and because Bob and I were serving our mission in Hawaii, my sister Susan and brother Dave and their families, and my children and their spouses took care of her. I am so thankful to all of them for the time and sacrifices they gave to make her life happy.
When we left to come on our mission, Mom was relatively well. She had suffered with rheumatoid arthritis for over 20 years and had become quite crippled. Therefore, physical mobility was a problem, yet she remained very independent and lived alone in her home until she died. She eventually died of EFD (esophageal function disorder).
It was a blessing for us to go home and be able to help care for her and visit with her for a few days. It was a blessing to be able to be with our family and friends in the celebration of her life during her funeral (held Dec. 28, 2001 – her and Dad’s 65th wedding anniversary date) and the days following. It has been a “bitter-sweet” time for us.
My mother was such a beautiful person, inside and out. She was truly a peacemaker during her entire life. It is an honor to be her daughter and to have been loved and taught on this earth by her. Her life was not always easy, but she always made the best of everything. She sacrificed much, giving hours of service to us as her family, Dad, the community, and the church. She had a strong testimony of the gospel and loved her Savior, Jesus Christ, with all of her heart.
Mom was a “classy lady!” She liked to always look just right and took great effort to do so. She will live on in our memories as a beautiful person from inside to outside!
Mom had a good life. I was privileged to help her write her history a few years ago, and now that history becomes a priceless treasure! She was such a beautiful example of love; sacrifice; devotion; humility; she was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, and friend; homemaker; community worker; and church worker. She was a true example of a Christ like life!
I miss her so much already! Many times a day I think, “I need to call Mom.” Oh, how I would love to talk to her ‘one last time’! One memory that is special to me is that every time we spoke to one another, our conversation ended with, “I love you,” “I love you too!”
I know that she knew she was loved by all of her family and friends, from the devotion and love everyone gave to her. Those memories will live on forever of the time and hours spent to visit and enjoy her company, help comfort her pain and ease her suffering. I know she now lives on, free from physical suffering and deformities, and continues her life with those that have gone on before her. It must have been a marvelous reunion for her with Dad, Phil, Jason, LaVaa, her parents, her brothers, and many other family members and friends. What a blessing the gospel gives to us with our knowledge of our life hereafter and progression in the eternities.
I pay tribute to Joyce LouRene Miller Edwards, for her life, for what she has done for me and my family, and I give her the love of my heart for being my mother. I anxiously wait for that time when we will be together again, for I know that time comes!
