I’m generally a very private person.  I have very few friends who I talk about my feelings with.  I rarely post personal things on my blog.

But I think I owe it to those of you who have been loyal readers and friends.  I am going through a rough time right now and you’ll likely notice a slight lack of postings in the near future.  I’ll continue the low entry giveaways postings, and I’ll fulfill my current commitments, but it will be several weeks until I begin taking on new projects again.

I have spent the past 3 days driving my two boys out to Utah so that I could attend EVO Conference in Park City and so that the boys and I could spend time with my husband’s family here in Utah.  On the last day of my drive (yesterday evening) my husband called to tell me that my mom had passed away suddenly at her home in California. She was just 53.

My mom has had health problems for the past several years, but we didn’t think any of them were life threatening.  Because she’s had chronic pain for so long she’s also struggled with chronic depression.  Just last week my family all gathered for my sister’s wedding in San Diego.  My mom seemed so much better and so much happier than I had seen here in years.  She was still in obvious pain, but she seemed more at peace with herself than I have seen her in a long time.

I wasn’t able to take my boys out to the wedding.  We just couldn’t afford the plane tickets.  I still haven’t told the boys about their “Grama Shell”.  I’m trying to figure out how to tell them. Last summer we drove down to stay with my mom for a month and help her out while The Husband was at officer’s training for the Air Force.  They formed a wonderful bond with her.  Though they haven’t seen her since then, but they still talk about her all the time.

We are all grateful for the time we spent with my mom last weekend.

Because my husband is a wonderfully sensitive man he waited until this morning to break the other bad news to me.  Yesterday, while he was at work our house was broken into and robbed.  Not something you ever hope will happen, and certainly a headache to deal with.  But if there is a bright side to the break in, it came at a time when our minds and hearts were in a place to recognize that it was just a loss of “stuff”.

My mother, on the other hand, while she is undoubtedly much more at peace and free of the pain she was in, will be greatly missed by all her children, grandchildren, and everyone else who’s life she touched.