We just buried my aunt yesterday.  She was only 66 years old.  She died on Wednesday; her funeral was yesterday (Saturday).  

We knew that "the end" was inevitable, but it still shocked us when we got the call from the hospice center; they were the ones who told us that Aunt Pricie had passed away.

Our aunt had lupus and other health problems.  She was very sick and often in and out of the hospital (lately, mostly in).  We were surprised that she didn't die sooner:  it seemed that she was always going to the doctor "for this or that" illness.  

Our aunt suffered for years; we'd really never known what it was like for her to be well.  Yet during the past five years, her life was goverened totally by her illness:  it was all she (and we) could think about.

Well, it turned out that she was sicker than any of us realized.  Aunt Pricie knew it too, so she decided to live out the last of her days at a hospice care center, where she could, at least, die in (relative) comfort and dignity.  The nurses who cared for her were very sweet and loving, not only with Pricie, but with us, her family, as well.

Then came The Call, the call that told us what we'd been expecting: Aunt Pricie had passed away.  We all cried, but then my parents went crazy planning/making arrangements for her funeral and other matters just as important.

Aunt Pricie was my dad's mother's older sister.  She lived here in town; she was the first of my grandmother's sisters to die.  She was also the sickest.

Now we sit here and remember Aunt Pricie and the joy she brought to our family, even in the midst of suffering/pain.  We are all sad, as we shold be, but I view her death as a blessing in disquise: she is no longer suffering, and she is with Jesus, up in Heaven.  She knew Jesus as her saviour, and because of this, she would now be with Him, in Heaven, forever and ever.