I Got It From My Momma

Hello everyone :) So this blog is going to be a little different than my previous ones.

As many of you know, my mom passed away on September 3, 2014. On Wednesday morning, I received a text from my sister saying that my mom was taken to the hospital after passing out while she was out to dinner with a friend. After several CAT scans and many other tests, the doctors concluded that my mom had had something similar to an aneurism and that there was a lot of bleeding and pressure building up in her brain. She was admitted to the hospital overnight where they performed a surgery to attempt to alleviate some of the pressure.  Unfortunately, the surgery was unsuccessful and the doctors realized that there was too much pressure and bleeding to be repaired. They later discovered that the bleeding was due to an undiscovered weak blood vessel in her brain that had probably been there since birth.  Thankfully, my mom was able to remain on life support until I was able to fly home from Sydney on Friday so that I could say my final goodbyes. Even though I know it's not goodbye, it's just see you later. We also decided that in my mom's giving spirit, she would have liked to donate her organs so that she could help to continue the lives of others. We learned that my mom's heart was transplanted to a man in Pittsburgh, her lungs, liver, and pancreas were transplanted to recipients in Chicago, and her kidneys were perfect matches for two other Chicagoians. We are still waiting on word of who will be seeing again with her eyes. Live on, Mom.

Now I could make this blog super sappy and reminiscent but then I would start crying and you would start crying and I just really wouldn't want that. But I would like to say that my mom was an absolutely amazing person who truly cared about everyone that she met. I definitely would not be where I am today without her tenacious, talkative, entertaining, motivational influence on my life. So thank you mom, for all of the lessons learned and fun times had. I know that I now have the best angel in heaven watching over me. Love you Mom <3

As hard as this week has been for me, it has been made exponentially better by the love and support of my friends and family. So, this blog goes to you, friends, because I can honestly say that I could not have made it through this without all of you. I can't even believe the outpouring of support I received, from friends coming home from school, to texts and phone calls, to personal song recordings from the wonderful Ryan Toher. You guys are indescribably incredible and amazing and every other synonym for those two words in the books and I cannot thank you enough. Seriously. One million and one thank you's wouldn't even begin to articulate how thankful I am to have such magnificent people in my life. So I'll start with just one, but in all caps. THANK YOU :)

On Sunday, we held a ceremony in my mom's memory. It was beautifully put together and completely captured my mom's spirit. So thank you to everyone who had a part in planning the ceremony and an even bigger thanks to those who came. All of the hugs and comforting words and memories shared meant so much to me. So thank you, thank you, and thank you again.

While I'm on the subject of thank you's, I want to especially thank Sidra and Natalie for being the best first responders on the scene that I could have ever asked for as well as the six best friends in the whole world, Victoria, Jessie, Nicole, Grace, Kelsey and Kristen. You guys are the greatest and I love you all so much :)

There are so many others that I would like to thank by name, but then this blog would be like a bajillion pages long and my fingers would probably get tired from typing. So I will just say thank you one more time. Thank you all SO much because you guys have so much more for me than I ever thought was possible. You all are amazing :)

So, as I would much rather post pictures than write words, I will end this post with pictures and memories of my mom (and also baby Becca which is always a treat).

And a whole family pic for good measure :)

Today I arrived safely back in Australia and I could not be happier to know that my mom can now be here with me :)

Stay tuned for my trip to the Blue Mountains this weekend!