Thank you all so very much for the outpouring of love and concern you showed during the memorials and through these recent days. God has really used you to be a help and an encouragement to us. Many of you came a great distance to be with us! May the Lord repay for your love and investment. I know that those of you who could not make it were with us in spirit and I count you as having been there also. How do I say thank you adequately enough? Thank you, dear friends.

     Each one of the kids spoke at the memorials, either reading part of their letter they wrote to Mom earlier in the year, or telling about some way in which she benefited their life. It was a powerful part of the ceremony and I was so proud of them for being willing to bless their mom. I shared how Gail has been a help to me over the years and read from Proverbs 31, "Her children rise up and bless you; her husband also and he praises her saying, 'Many daughters have done nobly, but you [dear Gail] excel them all.'"

    I told everyone what a killer shopper she was and how I wish that I had kept all the money she'd saved us. She even made us shop when we went camping. We would have to look at all the available campsites before choosing one. As we drove around the loop she made me put out a child at vacant sites in order to hold it in case it was the best. We often had several children distributed throughout the campground before we were done "shopping." You would have thought we were going to build a house there.

    I so appreciate our pastor friend from the coast, Roger Evey who did a excellent job officiating. The funeral director spoke to everyone at the cemetery and said that he had not seen such a fine service in a long time. We had prayed that God would be glorified, Gail would be honored, and everyone would be blessed. I sense that He heard and answered.

    Gail’s last words to us were, "Trust Jesus."

~Woody