Sheila May

Dear Nan Triffitt,

A year ago today you left this world of ours. It was a Thursday morning and I got the call from Simon early that morning that you had passed away. You see, I wasn't at home. I was at the emergency department of the hospital, four and a half months pregnant, waiting to see if the bleeding I had discovered that morning was bad news for our baby girl. As it turned out, it was!! A double whammy of a day.

I am writing you this letter because I feel that I didn't give enough thought to you this day last year. You see the news of your passing just added to an already black day.

Today I want to remember what a privilege it was to know you.

Jonty's blessing day (Jan 2009)

I am grateful that for the last six years of your life, I lived only ten minutes away.

I am grateful to have seen you every Sunday, always smiling and cheerful despite your ailments.

I am grateful to have been your visiting teacher and as you sat in your recliner, to listen to your testimony of reading the scriptures. It sent shivers down my spine to hear your quiet but powerful testimony. Do you remember that day? It had a profound impact on me as I realised there was so much to learn from you.

I wish I had known you for longer, known you like your grandkids did, when you were younger. I love that your grandkids loved and love you. Simon took the kids out to the cemetery to see you today. They know you weren't really there but up above smiling down on them running through the cemetery.

I remember the day you had your stroke and just that morning you were thinking of others, giving eggs to someone. I remember standing at your bed at the hospital, crying and talking to you while you were asleep and not able to respond, and getting the distinct impression from you to "stop crying and be strong because you weren't going anywhere just yet".

I am grateful for you loving the colour pink and making the best sponge ever. I am grateful for spending time in your home looking at photos and albums with Pop sitting in the sun room out the back, proudly telling me every time I visited, what the temperature was out there.

Finally I am grateful for the legacy you left behind that enabled me to be married to your grandson, these past 11 and a half years.

And so we decided last year that because you and Charlotte shared something that day, something so sad and precious, that part of our little girl's name would reflect the amazing woman that you are. Charlotte May is named after a wonderful, beautiful and incredibly strong woman. But she already knows that!!!!

Lots of love, Simone. xx

PS. I drive by your old house sometimes and your garden does not look as good as when you were there. That's okay because the garden you are working on now, I bet, is pretty amazing.

PSS. You would love the beautiful Autumn trees at the cemetery. The colours are brilliant.