Saturday was the service for Karen Livingston, who died last week after battling brain cancer for almost 29 years. Nola Neeley, her aunt, spear-headed the event, and there was family there as well as friends of her boys. It was a lovely service, and I was grateful to be part of it.
I was Karen's visiting teacher initially, but we became good friends and stayed connected over the years.
During the hard times, when she was prevented from being with her boys unless someone was with her, we organized women in the ward to come and stay with her. Eventually the custody issues were resolved, but for those months when I spent lots of afternoons with her and her two boys, Danny and Nathan, I came to love and care for these boys.
They have grown into fine young men. Nathan got a degree in Microbiology from UCLA and currently works at City of Hope. Danny still works at Wal-Mart but is planning to return to school in a technical field that I can't quite recall at the moment! Karen died happy, knowing that her boys were happy and successful.
Karen did have a very hard life. She faced challenges that would individually do anyone else in, but she somehow just got through it. Her sister Barb recounted one night a few weeks before she died. Karen said, as Barb was helping her get ready for bed, "I can't do it anymore, I just can't do it anymore. It's too much." So Barb said, "Just get through tonight, Karen. Take care of tomorrow tomorrow." And Karen gritted her teeth and got through the night.
We are grateful that she is finally at peace. I am grateful to have had a friend who had a good heart and a lot of inner strength. I learned much from her.
We love you Karen!
1 comment:
You are an amazing example of how the visiting teaching program is supposed to work.
And Karen is an amazing example of enduring to the end.
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