I just ran across this journal entry from February, 2006:
Justin Shumaker shared the following via IM:
so dig this. haley’s grandmother had a friend whom she had known since childhood. this friend didn’t have any children. she adored ella [Justin and Haley’s daughter], and wrote to her and sent her presents all the time, even though she had only been around ella a few times. she died of pneumonia this week, and we found out her last words were “tell ella i love her.”
Her name was Patty. She was 69 years old, and she lived in Abilene. Patty’s last thoughts were of a three-year old acquaintance named Ella. I don’t know if she was religious. I don’t know what she expected to find, if anything, on the other side of death. I do know that she was thinking of one of the sweetest things on earth when she died. I hope I can do the same.
As I type this, at 1:19 a.m. on a Friday night, I hear Francis stir and cry over the baby monitor. She only fusses for a few seconds. It sounds like she was ending a bad dream.
What will my last thought be?
