Sweet Memories of Marion Passey...

Joel's gammy passed away last night and Joel and I have had the day to process it fully. We've both shed tears of sadness of love lost, but we're so happy that she is out of pain and cruis'n around heaven in a red sports car! Joel and I loved "our" gammy so much. We have so many fond memories of her and her legacy will live on.


I have always had a close connection with Great Gammy because she was such a spitfire - I loved it! She learned through her life to get things done - something I greatly admire. She had the courage to raise her two youngest daughters on her own. She did a pretty darn good job too. My heart is full of gratitude for her faith in joining the church while living in California. It was a time of stress and heartache. Because of her commitment, she gave the gift of the gospel to her posterity.


We loved getting random phone calls from her during our years in med school and residency. She was a published author of 6 children's books and was always excited to share her latest story with us. I found her work to be so witty and humorous - I know where Cristie (Joel's mom) and Joel get it from! I still don't know how each of her stories wasn't published immediately - they are truly wonderful. I learned a lot about the publishing industry through her experiences. We spent the day today searching the internet and buying 5 copies each of all (except for one) of her published books for our posterity. She authored the following books...



I hope we'll make it a priority to publish the rest of her stories someday. If I know her daughters, I'm sure it will happen. I hope to be a part of it.

Her stories aren't the only thing that will live on. Whenever we would visit, she was always excited to show us her latest cross stitch masterpiece. She definitely had some works of art in her repertoire. She was kind enough to share a cross stitch of Christ with us one year. I had it beautifully framed for Joel last Christmas and it is the first thing you see when you enter our home. I love that she is still with us. She painted these exquisite nativity sets for her family. We adore ours and think of her every time we admire it. I just noticed today that we have a similarly painted cookie jar on our countertop that she gave us years ago. All of these things are so loved by us.


Yes, these "things" help us remember our gammy, but you can't take "things" with you when you pass on. I'm so grateful Joel and I could visit Gammy one last time before Christmas. She was going downhill quickly and was suffering with a great deal of pain. She was lucid and showed us that day that she still had some humor left in her! How blessed are we to have been able to say our "good-bye's" before her passing. It was sad to see her like that. She was so tired. Because of that I'm glad she could go relatively quickly. My last visual memory was of her wrapped in the warm blue blanket we brought to keep her comfortable during her final days. I hope it did just that.


We're so grateful to the Law family (Joel's aunt) for taking such great care of her all of these years. Many thanks particularly to Aunt Melanie and Uncle David for all of the commitment they showed through the years and more specifically, those last few weeks. You guys are amazing. Also, a big thanks to Stan and Cristie (Joel's parents) for watching over her that last night. I'm so glad Stan could be there to make her passing more comfortable.

It's never easy to lose a loved one, but once the grief subsides it's easy to ponder the meaning of eternal life. I pray that my life can have meaning when I pass. I hope to make my posterity proud of me like we are of Gammy. I want to end my tribute with a sweet thought from Joel's brother, Matt. It sums up our feelings beautifully:

Thank you for giving me The Church
Thank you for giving me my mom
Thank you for believing in me
Thank you for living a hard life to give me a better one
Thank you for your stories
Thank you for your poems
Thank you for the memories
Thank you for giving me my life
Thank you for loving me before you knew me
I will miss you, Gammy
We will all miss you