The World is a little darker place today.....

I wasn't online yesterday because we were visiting my brother.... I returned to the cyberworld to find sad news awaiting me. Kim of I shaved my Legs for This? went to take her place among the stars yesterday. How like Kim to somehow manage to wait till the day after Christmas to leave her family. It is so like her! She would not have wanted Christmas to be remembered by them as the day she left them...

Kim fought her long battle with cancer with bravery and courage. I was often in awe of her strength and of the way she never lost her sense of humor even when faced with news that would have devastated anyone. This isn't to say she didn't have days that she railed against the disease! But always, through it all, she kept reminding us that every day spent with our loved ones is a good day.

I 'knew' Kim through her journal before the dreaded 'C' word reared it's ugly head. She would often tell us stories of her immediate family, her history, and of her extended family. Always with a dash of humor thrown in.

When she was diagnosed she ranted a little, cried a little, and then became the warrior against the disease that we all followed in her journal. Being Kim, she felt that if the tale of her battle helped even one other person to have a little hope, gave them a little more strength to fight, then she had accomplished her goal.

Kim held nothing back. We heard of the dark days when she contemplated her mortality. We were with her when she received good news from tests AND bad news. She constantly reminded us that she was fighting to spend as many precious moments with her family as she could manage.

Today there is one more bright star in the heaven's. Kim hasn't left us. I know that she will continue to watch over her children and her husband from wherever she has gone. She loved all four of those children with a fierceness that  we would often see when she would go into 'mama bear' mode.... and she loved her husband. Jim was the other half of her... her sole mate.

Goodbye Dear Friend....... I will miss your humor, your strength, your poetry, and the beautiful way you could see the world thru the lens of your camera. I will miss you......

edited to add later:
I just found out thru another journal that J-land lost another person this week. Lahoma of Lahoma's Laments also lost her battle with cancer. She passed on Christmas Day. It is truly a sad week in cyberland....