It's been a year already, Marlene?

Today has been a year since my best friend Marlene died. She lived with us the last couple of weeks of her life because she couldn't be on her own anymore. She had ovarian cancer. Not pretty, and not fair.

Our friendship may have seemed a bit odd. She was 15 years older than me. We worked together at Hospice, and met my first day on the job. She wanted to look after me as I was a young, single, very tan girl on her own, way out in Utah. My mom was in Pennsylvania. She always made cookies for me and we went out to eat a lot. She had a great sense of humor, and was the most kind hearted person I had ever, or will ever know. I got engaged, got married, and secured the future of the Proulx name.

Whenever I had babies, she would make us meals, shower the baby with presents, and get me out of our 600 sq. foot BYU apartment when I needed it. When I was in the hospital for 5 weeks before having Jadon, she called me every single night. She took good care of us. I always knew I would take care of Marlene when it was her turn to be taken care of.

One night of after her having severe stomach pain, I took her to the ER. We were there the entire night, into the morning of August 18th. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and soon after was told she had 6-12 months to live. She was determined to live a year. She lived exactly that, 1 year to the day.

It was a great experience having Marlene here with us those last 2 weeks. We ate tons of ice cream, and talked for hours and hours, and she doted on the kids. I'm happy for her now, because I know where she is, and who she's with. We know that where she is , she is able to live without pain, and physical limitation. We miss her though, and love her. I think about her whenever I pig out on ice cream, which is pretty much constantly. ;-)