Time does not heal all wounds, rather, it turns them into something else...WHAT is entirely up to you.

"It is amazing how day by day the time crawls and all of the sudden, it has been a month, then 6, then a year...until the fond memories are all you have and the pain seems to nearly disappear - not that you miss her any less, but rather, she becomes a part of your soul and you carry her with you wherever you go."

I wrote this to my friend the other day as she discussed with some sorrow that her puppy had been gone for a month now.  Although I wrote it for her, but was thinking about the losses I have had in my life.  While sad, the most recent, my grandmother in 1999, was bittersweet.  Perhaps this is why I can be so Pollyanna about it.  She had MS and suffered so much through the last few years that death was a welcome relief to her body and soul.  Our sadness was really of a more selfish nature - we would miss her.   She was the glue that held us all together and in the years since her passing, that has become more and more evident.  She made us all want to be better and do better and was always willing to lend an ear and an encouraging word.  She had this amazing way about her; although uneducated, she was one of the smartest women I have known, for she knew just what to say and do to make us all want to succeed while she was alive.