Iva Lu Richards 1928 - 2009

Well gang this is day I had hoped would never come. Unfortunately it is my sad duty to report the death of my beloved mother. She passed away at 12:48 P.M on Sunday January 4th 2009.
Since sunday I have had so many thoughts and emotions run through my head. The bottom line is that I had a very strange relationship with my mother. How could someone make me so mad who I loved so much? How could someone I thought could be so clueless be so inteligent. How could I want so dearly to be close to some one I tried so hard to push away? We had our issues there is not doubt but they always seemed to work out in the end. In all of the difficult times I shared in the relationship with my mother I want all of you to know this, my mother NEVER stopped telling me she loved me and she NEVER stopped being concerned with my well being. In all of that time when I was depressed, and not know what to do I could always call on her for a loving shoulder to cry on and a bit of good advice. She was a master of pointing out the obvious, which until this just this this moment, I could never figure out why she did that but now that I look back I think her message was this, the obvious is there for a reason, to keep life simple, the answer is right in front of you don't complicate things and let it pass you by.
I am so thankful to God above for allowing me to finally get over what ever it was that was haunting me and have a few months of the way it used to be with my Mom.
The death of a loved one is a very strange thing. We always say that we would do any thing for them but we are always so selfish when it's time for them to leave. We can't bare to let them go, but that is for us not for them. I have to be careful when I say this, but I really wanted my mom to go. She had expressed on several occasions how much she wanted to see her Husband again and especially see her parents and siblings again. As my family and I lay beside her bedside as she was taking her last few breaths she spoke her last words and they were this, "what do I do?". The answer is obvious my dear Mother, walk forward, don't ever look back and know that I will always love you.