The loss of a friend.

I was just informed that Aaron, a friend of mine passed away yesterday. I'm sitting here in disbelief and in tears as I write this. Here's the most recent post from her blog:

I very painfully regret to inform you.... Aaron passed away in a car accident yesterday, Saturday May 24, 2008. While she will not be continuing her blog I want to make sure those who are close to her know of the incident and the services. I dont know much about the accident. She was finally heading to Utah to start her new life in her new house, with her little family. They were in an accident and life flighted to Denver, CO. The boys were shaken, bruised, and knocked around a little but they are with their daddy now and no longer in the hospital. Mallory suffered some pretty good injuries, quite a concusion, she has no memory of the accident (which is why we dont know much) her short term memory is shot, and her leg is pretty messed up but hopefully she will be out of the hospital soon. Her baby is a medical miracle at this point. The doctors said they dont know how she survived. They are just monitoring the heart beat and making sure it stays strong. I will post information about the services as soon as I know more.....thank you.Krista Patrick (sister and friend)

She will be missed terribly. Her light and love will live on in her three boys. Please keep Aaron and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

Just a peek into what kind of woman Aaron was, this was posted on her blog on April 14th, 2008.

Do you ever feel...
like someone or something has been brought into your life for a reason? Even though you don't know what that reason is, or have any idea how things will happen or work out? I feel that way right now about a young lady that my sister and I are getting to know. I feel really blessed to be able to get to know her and hopefully help her while she goes through some difficult times--I don't even know much about her, but I really feel like this is one of those divine moments in my life where there is a much higher purpose...even if it is simply that she needs help and we can be part of helping her. I don't want to be too specific because it is not my business, but I do feel grateful for this opportunity to look outside myself and my own problems for awhile. After that introduction, anything else I say seems like it would be a little trite.

Tonight we tried to have family home evening. Basically, the only thing that was really accomplished was that I was able to spend some quality, extended time with all three of my boys, without feeling like I had to do ANYTHING else. We sang some songs (you haven't seen cute until you've seen Sam singing 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, or Ben singing about the wheels on the bus), talked a little bit about Samuel the Lamanite (I have been trying to get the boys interested in the scriptures by reading scriptures about people with the same names as them--we read about King Benjamin the other day, and also about Samuel the Lamanite.) and I showed them the pictures from the gospel art kit. Then we talked about how Samuel was telling the people that Jesus was going to be born and come to earth to show us all how much he loves us...then I showed them a picture of Jesus and some little children and we talked about how much Jesus loves us all.

After that, we played with the little file folder game I made earlier today (with Mallory's help!) of the monkeys swinging in the tree, and then we colored pictures for Cameron. The boys dictated little messages and I wrote them on the back, and then we put the pictures in envelopes and sealed them to mail to daddy tomorrow. Overall, it was a really nice FHE. Obviously it didn't go as smoothly as it sounds, but it was good.

I am grateful for little moments that remind me how grateful I am for my children and how glad I am to be a mom. Sometimes I forget exactly what a great blessing I have...when I get caught up in work, and stress, and worrying, and life...and then I have to step back and remind myself how blessed I am...I have a great life. My kids are healthy, and smart, and curious, and fantastic. My husband loves me, and I love him. We are doing ok for ourselves. Not rich, obviously, but making it. I can't ask for much more. I hope I can remember to be happy more often.