Goodbye my dear...

Tomorrow I will be saying goodbye to a woman who has touched my life with happiness.

After a "good innings" as most would say, and years of battling illness and cancer, the fight is over.

I knew this was coming but was unprepared for the sickening punch to the stomach that this news brought with it.

A bright shining star has disappeared from my life but remains in my heart.

Mrs K has been a part of my life since I was six.

Every week at dance lessons, there she sat to welcome us in the door, cross our names off the roll and listen to all the things a child feels the need to talk about.

Smiling and serene, laughing and joking, she brightened each hour that I spent in the hall.

If Mrs D needed anything she would happily oblige, dancing across the floor and adding a little twirl to make us all giggle, as light on her feet as a young woman in love.

Every year she sewed together thousands of costumes, her little caravan taken over by piles of sparkly skirts and leotards, her labour of love for her dancing girls.


As I grew older and started teaching dance I spent more and more time with Mrs K. I fell more and more in love with her calm and enthusiastic approach to life. 


She attended every day of lessons at two schools for almost thirty years. And only missed a couple at the end of last year when they found the new cancer, and she was ordered into hospital. 


More worried for "her girls" then herself, she refused to let Mrs D cancel classes, would have been horrified if anyone stopped just for her.


At home after the decision that no more treatment was available, she traveled to the city to look after her sister who was unwell, again showing the selfless, caring side we all knew and loved.


Mrs K was everyone's grandmother. The fun one with an iPad and a Facebook account, as well as a sharp sense of humour. Who listened, laughed, commiserated and cheered us. And kicked our arses at Words With Friends.

She refused to be ill. She was all right, she insisted. Don't fuss, live life.

She certainly did that.



Mrs K was dearly loved by all who knew her, and it breaks my heart to have to say goodbye.


I will forever see her gliding across the dance floor, with a joke on her lips and a song in her heart, just he way she loved to be.


Goodbye my dear... I am so very thankful that you were part of my life.

 

Joining Kate Says Stuff for Thankful Thursday today