Life is So Precious.....

In the blink of an eye.....life changes. At one moment you are happily driving back home thinking of baking with your grandchildren,hearing their laughter in the backseat of your vehicle, and the next you are gone.

This is what happened to a woman I was acquaintances with but who's warm smile and happy demeanour touched my life. She, like me, was an avid scrapbooker. While I scrapbooked about my children, she scrapbooked about her grandchildren. My friend Jenn and I met her at a crop last fall. We were happily scrapping away and she was sitting at the next table. She offered us chocolate covered pretzels and we started chatting and oohing and ahhing over an adorable page she had made of her grandson. I remember it vividly. It was made with a Basic Grey paper with little froggies on it. She told us that she was the proud grandma of 2 and that she was a mom to a girl and a boy. She then proceeded to take out pictures of her daughter's wedding and showed us pics of her son and his girlfriend who happened to share her passion for scrapbooking. I would run into her at a scrapbook store we both frequented and would read posts made by her at a scrapping message board....all the while always mentioning her passion for scrapbooking and doting on her grandchildren.

On Wednesday, after stopping by a friends house and doing some shopping with her children, she was driving back home. From what the authorities say, it seems she was a bit distracted with her cell phone and didn't notice the tractor trailer crossing the intersection directly in front of her. Now she is gone....her grandchildren are now in critical condition in the hospital. In an instant, life changes.

Although we were mere acquaintances, her death moved me. Her chipper posts on the message boards, the warm hellos, and the twinkle in her eye at the mention of her grandchildren will be missed. I pray for the speedy recovery of her grandchildren, for strength for her children, especially her daughter who not only lost her mother, but must remain strong for her children without the immediate shoulder to cry on of her husband (who is serving our country in Afghanistan).

Life is precious....cherish it. For we never know when it will be our time to go....