One of the neatest things about being married to Shay is getting to be a part of his unique and enormous extended family, the Shackelford clan. Every holiday, Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day, whatever the occasion there is always a group of 50+ gathered together. Now this is not a group of 50 that you only see or talk to once or twice a year, it is a very close knit group of siblings, aunts, uncles, grandchildren, great grandchildren and cousins. I don't know how else to describe it other than unique.
Well this weekend we lost a vital member of our clan, Shay's sweet Aunt Becky. Let me be clear that nothing I could ever say will even come close to describing what a remarkable woman she was or how important she was to all of us. I could never fully express to you what a precious, kind, loving, compassionate, thoughtful, SELFLESS, caring, positive, Christ-loving woman she was. She was someone that I would so desperately loved to be like or compared to....if I could be even a quarter of the kind of woman she was I would be happy. I don't think it will offend anyone to say Aunt Becky seems to be every one's favorite. She never forgets a birthday, anniversary or special occasion. She always called once every few weeks just to let us know that she loved us, missed us, was thinking about us and praying for us. She never failed to make you feel special. She has been one of the only people in our lives that really takes the time to do that on a regular basis.
I could go on and on, blog after blog, about how special really was but my words would never be enough. In the midst of this terrible cancer that so quickly took her from us, she remained positive and constantly praising the Lord. It blew me away. Aunt Becky kept saying what a blessing it had all been. That is a concept that is hard for us to grasp. How could this awful, unfair illness, that has left the rest of us with deep sadness and feeling cheated out of precious years with her be a blessing? Although we may never fully see this as the blessing Aunt Becky described, I know it was in the Lord's perfect plan.
The undeniable blessing would be that I was lucky enough to be loved by Becky Jones. No one loved you like Aunt Becky. From the moment she met you, she loved you like no other. A sweet and again indescribable, unconditional love always accompanied by support and encouragement. I'm so thankful to have known her and been part of her family. She has impacted me in immeasurable ways and I long to be a woman like her....if only.
This blog post has been delayed because we left straight from the funeral and headed to Disney World. Since returning from our trip I have really been missing Aunt Beck because she would have been the first to call to hear all about our vacation. Oh how I wish I could share with her...
