a tribute to greatness...

My dear Aunt Carolyn passed away this afternoon after a long struggle with brain and breast cancer.  She was 62 years old.  This is a picture of her(on the left) with my mom, her younger sister.  I have so many wonderful memories and thoughts of Carolyn going through my mind tonight.  My heart is aching for those she left behind.  She was such a force for good in her family, her neighborhood and her community.  She had so many friends and touched so many lives.  She was amazingly kind to everyone.  We would always say, "Carolyn never meets a stranger."  I was so shy growing up and I would just look at the way she treated people, and the way she brought joy to people, and I was always awe-struck by the magnitude of her heart, and the fearless way she reached out to everyone from the bag boy at the market to the people she took care of in her long career as a nurse.  She had a love for her Savior that she was never afraid to share with others.  Her faith was inspiring.  It is a comfort to know that the painful ending of her life is over and that she has found rest with God.

She lived in North Carolina, but my best summer memories are of vacations at her home and at her beach home in Myrtle Beach.  She had no children of her own, and when my siblings and I would visit her, she treated us with amazing love and generosity.  She was a true Southern Belle, beautiful inside and out, and always the lady.  She inspired me in life, and will continue to inspire me as someone who walked her walk and lived life every single day to its fullest, all the while loving and serving everyone whose path intersected her own.  

Tonight my heart is broken for her mother, her husband, and her siblings.  Their family will be left with a hole without Carolyn's joyous laughter.  I pray that they will all feel comfort at this sad time.  I know that I will hold my memories of her close to my heart and try to emulate her wonderful qualities that touched my life and changed me for the better.