Debbie

My friend Debbie died this week. I got to know Debbie when she was the health aide at my school. Her youngest, Aaron, and Hannah used to hang out when they were in middle school and early high school. Debbie and I ate lunch together 2-3 times per week for about 3 or 4 years. We had a lot in common--two girls and the youngest, a boy, all who played soccer. Her husband used to spend a lot of time away from home with soccer activities. Debbie loved dogs and got her puppy, Jack, around the time I got Rex. We got them together a couple of times to play. Debbie had already fought breast cancer when I hung out with her. Then it came back in her bones and her liver but she beat that, too. She stopped working after the chemo and radiation wore her down. And then the cancer came back into her brain. I visited Debbie two weeks ago and got to pray with her and reassure her of heaven. She joked with us even then. The last thing she said to me was, "I like your pink shorts!". Here she was laying in a hospital bed with oxygen and an iv and no use of her legs and she was complimenting me! Debbie was always open about her cancer and she was so brave. She kept a great sense of humor and always wanted to know how I was (pretty remarkable). I read what her husband wrote about the moment she died (at home with her family and dogs nearby). I cried like a baby because it said her little dog, Jack, howled right at the moment she died. It was about the sadest thing I've ever heard. I will miss Debbie. I hope she is loving heaven.