Beloved Wife, Mother, and Friend

My Step-Mother, Serena, passed away this morning. I cannot express how much she meant to me and my family. Words, simply aren't enough... they seem hollow, inadequate, and anything I say would necessarily be missing some important part of who and what she was, but not to say something of what she meant to me would be even worse.... so I will try....

To me, she was a mother who cared for me when my own mother was not able to be there. She was a friend who listened to me when I cried and cried with me. She explored knowledge, whimsy, spirituality and hope with me whenever I needed a companion on those journeys. She kept me grounded when I began to float to high, and she encouraged me to spread my wings when I felt lead in my soul. She fought my stubborn streak with a love that I didn't deserve. She cried when I made mistakes, but she tried to let me learn from them. She beamed in pride when I accomplished the impossible. She tempered my father's protective nature.... there really is no end to what she was to me. Even now, she is a source of strength to me.

She found out she had Lou Gehrig's Disease in July of 2005 and suffered for 3 years before succumbing to the diseases ravaging effects. She went from walking to work daily to lying in a bed in a nursing home, unable to command her body to do the simplest task. But she always comforted those around her rather than engage in pity over her situation. She was a pillar of strength to all those who knew her, and I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to have been her daughter.