Good Bye Ella

I got the call this morning, Ella passed away in her sleep last night.

I'm glad the girls and I had an opportunity to drive up and visit with her on Christmas Eve. She was mostly lucid, well aware of who we were. Capable of hugging us and expressing her love and gratitude that we'd made the trip.

Ella is the girl's grandmother, my ex-mother-in-law. As she was Anthony's step-mother, she shares no blood with the girls. But the love she showered on them couldn't have been any stronger if she had been. From South Carolina, Ella was without blood relatives in Texas. She and I hit it off immediately and she became the closest thing to a mother that I've ever had.

She taught me to sew. Bought me my first sewing machine, and then a serger. We made up crafts together and sold them in stores around Central Texas. We went to craft fairs out of town together. We worked together in the pecan house, with the girls in a playpen. I helped her open and run an antique mall in town.

She took me on vacations, bought me clothes, loved my girls. She taught me more about family, adjusting to marriage, and sticking up for my self than anyone else ever has. Ella was also the first person to believe in me. The first person to tell me I could do anything I wanted, to BELIEVE I could be anything I wanted.

And she would talk about anything, there was no taboo subject where Ella was concerned. She loved to talk, to anyone, on any subject, at any time.

Our relationship didn't end with my separation from her step-son. Her love didn't end with my girls, she took Will in as one of her own and loved him equally.

I will miss her.