The passing of little Lucy

This is Thomas writing.  I know, its been like forever.

I woke up Friday morning, I had already slept through my morning alarm clock a little bit and I was in a rush to get out the front door to head to work.  I got my work clothes on, put on my shoes, combed my hair and was about to head out of the bedroom door when I saw something unusual.  There was a huge pile of used facial tissues piled up a foot away from the computer sceen.  Three feet further away was the trash can, so it was clear to me that whatever Alicia was reading the night before caused her to be super glued to the monitor to the point where she didn't want to get up to throw away the snotty tissues.  And then of course there were those tissues.  She had clearly been sobbing and I knew she was not sick.  And of course the thought passed through my mind that maybe it was something I did that I was oblivious to (that's happened a couple times), or maybe something else.  Once a few years ago Alicia ran over a stray cat who darted out in front of her and Alicia was completely distraught about it for days and during which she didn't want to tell me what happened and the whole time I was thinking she was upset with me.   I didn't want this to be one of those situations again. 

So although I was already running late for work, I snuck back into the bedroom, Alicia was still sleeping, I softly woke her up being careful not to make much noise as Whitney's crib is in our room, and told her I saw all the tissues and asked if anything was wrong.  Alicia asked if I really wanted to know, and I replied with a soft "Mm-hmm".  Then in a helpless tone Alicia said, "Lucy died."  I knew who Lucy was because Alicia always talks about her and her family and their struggles.  Lucy was a baby that was born right around the time Whitney was born, and althrough Lucy had different medical complications than Whitney, they both had feeding tubes which is how Alicia and Lucy's mom hooked up.  Alicia was an avid follower of their blog (http://elizaandchuck.blogspot.com).  Even if I were doing something important on the computer, Alicia would kick me off if she knew there was a new post to be read on their blog.  Alicia was very emotionally invested in Lucy's well being.

So when the news hit me that Lucy had passed away, I knew this was a very sad time.  I laid there in bed with Alicia and held her, forgetting about how late I was going to be for work.  Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers are with Lucy's family.  This especially hits home for us as Lucy is the same age as Whitney and we are forced to image what their family must be going through.  Yet we celebrate Lucy's short life and the impact she's had on so many, including us.  And we rejoice in our common faith and understanding of Heavenly Father's plan of happiness and our true purpose for coming here on earth.  How we wish Lucy could have stayed longer to enrich our lives even more.  But we are humbled knowing that Lucy was needed more so in the celestial courts on high.  We love you and will miss you, Lucy.