What it meant to be yours: comforting and safe, a bedrock beneath me of support and pride and encouragement. I could always call on you for advice or working through a problem which needed complex consideration. You lived with a confidence in yourself built by an endless commitment to quality, knowledge, and compassionate living, and you helped instill the same within us. Walking through the loss of Mama together forged a new level of closeness we'd never known, and then witnessing you meet and love Amelia and Luka catapulted our love to new altitudes. Your partnership in our family was a bright light and the way becoming a mom without my mom was somehow survivable. You carried her forth, and allowed her memory to wrap around every element of the family we created. Living without both of you is something I can scarcely accept, and it is only with the strength you helped me build and foster that I can glimpse how we continue.
