My moms brothers and our spiritual family!

Two months after, my mom passed away in an untimely death. I felt the need to write this writing piece up on behalf of her legacy, on behalf of her family, to let people know of the footprints my mom walked and all the men in her life she thanked who role-modeled fatherhood; starting with her brother Ken who finally found her!

I wanted to write this on behalf of my late mother to honor her brothers. They're lovely fathers to my cousins that they've all raised. Here is a letter from her, written by me to everyone in the universe, starting with the staff at my children's previous school!

My letter in 2018:

To everyone, to our village, thank-you you for being our strength through this time:

It's one with many lessons gained through pain, surviving, and watching people stay. It's one where GOD is all we have and a reminder that tomorrow won't always be promised to us no matter what we think.

It's summertime, and I hope you're all enjoying it because that's what summer is for - a time to be with your family and create memories they can always keep because material things will fade, but memories will always be there.

I just gave a speech in May! I am unprepared for this season in my life.

I want to thank every last person for all the love and support they've given my family and me over the years.

You all could have judged me for my past mistakes in life that put me in the position of single motherhood. You all never did.

I loved the school as if it was a second home. You all could have made up my character, but you all took the time to try to know me as decent human beings are supposed to. You've all practiced kindness and compassion; I applaud your generosity!

I don't always understand it. The truth is that God allows everything for a reason. I always believe that GOD is in everything, even in ROCK BOTTOM and that there's a happy ending in every situation. The only thing I know is to take the humble road in everything that feels like failure. It's not failure. It's GOD putting us through trials to lead us to testimony.

My mother always reminded me, "No matter what... put your trust...faith...and hope in GOD.

She didn't write that to me but to everybody. My mother carried cards and gifts everywhere so nobody would feel alone.

The reason I give is that I don't care about material things. I don't care about status. I care that I embrace my mother in everything that I am.

God and family first. Everything else after. When we have GOD, our rewards are always in heaven. They're never here. My mom instilled that into me from a young age, and that's something that never left me.

Throughout childhood and life, my mother was always in the background, helping me ensure never to reject anybody in anything.

Her ideas became my imagination. My imagination became my creativity—a self-sacrificing woman who always chose to love everybody above herself.

She always chose to give but never took credit. She liked being in the background. She never forgot to say thank you to anybody. She is a woman of gratitude, and she was a woman who instilled the meaning of appreciating others into all of her children.

Whether my mother met you or not. My mother could not thank everybody due to her constant appointments over the years. She always wanted to. Unfortunately, I'm the one who is writing

everybody, one last letter to say THANK YOU to everybody there on her behalf because she was thankful for everybody there.

The truth is she had a hectic schedule. It was either work, volunteer work, or hospital appointments. When she wasn't doing that, she needed to rest.

In life, you never expect to be a single mother trying to save your mother every day of your life to see her see another year, and that's what my life has been for the past eight years for me.

You're trying to get your kids through school with many other things going on. The only thing I knew how to survive it all was to be exactly like my mother was, and from what I've learned, exactly like her brothers were and are, as fathers themselves. My mother's story is their story, just told differently, as they're all 60 scoop survivors.

You might think I was helping all of you. No, you all were helping me. You gave me a place to stay positive in every aspect of life. You gave my children a second family. I felt GOD in every last person that was there.

I want to thank everyone, and I won't mention names, who gave us drives over the years, especially when it was cold outside. I want to show gratitude and thank the people who took my kids for a playdate with their kids. I want to thank their kids for being amazing friends to my kids, that are irreplaceable. I want to thank everyone for my family's food over the year.

The food never went to me. It went to my mother, my father, and my brother. I want to thank all the parents who contributed to me watching their kids after school when I did. That money never went to me either. I put what I could back into the childhood memories my mother often gave me. The rest went to my mom. She needed it. She's fought a long battle with cancer we thought was finally over.

For example, my dear friends, we all went to Niagara together to stay at GREAT WOLF LODGE... and we all went to see the falls... and then I was able to tell my mom how blessed her grandkids are through the school. I guess those things only last for so long.

I want to thank everybody who has prayed for my mom over the years and often asked me how my mom was? I remember everything. I want to thank and thank every last one of you on her behalf because if she knew all your names. She would write you a thank you card with a long letter of God's greatness.

You've all been great people in ways you don't even know. You think you're going to a school, and instead, I've been completely humbled by all of you; I never really told you how much I appreciated you all. I guess that's why I'm doing it for her instead.

I didn't want anybody to feel obligated because that's not who I am. The truth is my mothers has been fighting a long battle with cancer. When I first put my children in school, life was great. I was living on my own loving my independence. Like always, my siblings all moved on, some far away. I moved back home due to my mother falling ill. People grow up.

You all could judge me for that too, but you never did. I know how people are considered in society because many read the cover. They never read the story. I thought my mother would get better one day, and then I'd go back to school, and she'd be blessed when I finally made it. I never saw the ending without her. I saw being her part of it.

I don't even regret being a single mother because I gave my mom the greatest blessing you could give a grandma. A chance to see their children and grandchildren growing up. Each one of my kids is a blessing in disguise.

I'm not proud of how I had them. Still, I know a GOD who makes no mistakes... and uses each failure in our lives.. to create testimonies that we can rewrite stories with to help others because sometimes he needs us to be relatable for whatever our future purpose is. I always watched my mom do that for everybody.

In closure, I ask for all of your prayers for my family and my children. We've always been prepared for this day but never so soon. One minute we're all at the teacher's appreciation night, and God put it on my heart to tell you all about her, and I don't know why he did that.

The GOD she instilled into me as a baby. The faith she kept in him when she never saw the light at the end of the tunnel. I never witnessed the hope, compassion, and kindness in anybody else; I just always wanted to be like her. She made so many people's lives brighter. The prayers she always said for each of her children. She pushed all her children to the best versions of themselves from the inside out through the bible verses. My mom always wrote bible verses on our cards. I've never been ashamed to carry my bible anywhere.

With great sadness, grief, and sorrow, I must tell you all the mother I love so dearly has let GOD call her home. She passed away on Sunday peacefully in her sleep. She was 61. One minute we're all together celebrating my father's birthday, realizing my parents will be married for 40 years next March. The next my father and I are calling 9-1-1 to tell them to get to my house because my mom won't wake up and nothing is working. That was my Sunday, an experience that will humble me in GOD for the rest of my life. It shows how quickly our lives can change in the blink of an eye.

I realized that I was always walking God's path. I look at my life and all the people around me and everything I should be. In the night, as I was calling everybody the bearer of bad news.

I could have chosen so many ways to live my life. I decided to love my family. My mom told all her friends the type of daughter I was. As I called them all, they all felt the need to say to me. The saddest part of it all was it took her death to realize I was living a fulfilling life. It doesn't matter how people see it. All that sincerely matters is how God sees us in our hearts.

My point is when you look around, you think everybody has it better than you. You think you're supposed to be like the others to be considered successful. The truth in my personal beliefs is that GOD wants us to be grateful for the life he gave us because if I was doing all those things... It would have been great, but I would not have been there when my mom needed me most.

As my family learns how to move into the next chapter, God will always lead us because he's always taught us to be in the places where we're needed. That's the most fulfilling way anybody could ever live.

It's been a week of mourning. It's been a week of grief. My siblings have stepped in to help me try to keep the kids as happy as possible, and I just wanted to say thank you to every single person for everything you've done for my family, myself, and my children over the past five years, you might not know you have, but I want to show you gratitude on behalf of my mother.

God bless you all. Have a wonderful day

Irene <3.