Dear Betsy,

I understand completely how you feel. I lost my mother June 26th, 2011 to cancer. We were VERY close. She raised me on her own. Moving forward is some days impossible because it means leaving them behind. Trying to live without them - emotionally heart wrenching. Put yourself into your work like I do. I work for a non profit animal rescue. My mother was always proud of me for being so compassionate. How did your husband die?

I will share a story with you. Sunday morning on my local news there was an elderly man and woman sitting on a tattered couch holding hands in their living room in front of the TV cameras. Their son was just brutally murdered at an ATM in my town. The murder caught. As they sat on their couch in their modest home...the man spoke but his elderly wife did not. What he said moved me. He said "We feel relief that the man who murdered our son has been arrested. But it will not bring our son back to us. Our son is gone and that is just the way it has to be". Here is a couple in their twilight with their lives forever changed by the actions of one horrible person. Their strength just took my heart by the strings. This morning over coffee I said to myself...Mom I guess you have moved on. It's not you or me that have to move on...it's your husband and my mother who have moved on. Does that make any sense? Those of us left behind will move on when God makes that decision. Until then we have to be the best people we can be in the name of those who love us. Huggs Sue