Day 239 of 365 Days of Being Thankful

         Today I am thankful that my sister-in-law Pennie sent me a really nice email telling me how much she enjoyed my blog.  Her email gave me such a good, warm feeling.  Pennie is very thoughtful  She lost her teenage sister when she was a teen so she definitely understands the enormity of loss of a loved one who died too young.  Pennie once told me that she pictures Amy and our mother-in-law Bernice swinging together  on an outdoor swing.  That image hugs my heart and makes me feel a tiny bit better. She sends angels every year at Christmas in Amy's memory.

I have them all on a shelf in my family room. This is my favorite one because the angel is holding a cat and Amy LOVED cats.  Amy begged for a cat since she was a very little girl.  Dan would never let us get a cat because he said HE HATED CATS.  One day when Amy was about 4, she said to me, do you think we can get a cat if Dad dies??  I said, sure!  When Amy was in middle school, she rode and worked at a horse farm.  One of the barn cats had kittens and she begged me to let her have one.  I decided we were getting a cat. I said to Dan, the girls and I are getting a cat.  If you don't like it, don't go near the cat we will do all of the work and take care of it.  But we are getting one I work full-time, I am an adult, and I want the cat!  So Amy brought home Smiley.  He was the best cat ever and wouldn't you know it, the cat ADORED Dan.  And Dan adored the cat. The first day we had the cat, it kept going and sitting with Dan. Smiley followed Dan around the house and would jump up into his arms!! We would say...leave our cat alone, you HATE cats!!  That cat was like a dog, it came to the door whenever someone came it and he sat at the bus stop with Renee until the bus came roaring around the corner.  We buried her cat Benson with her and our cat Marvin with her.  Both cats were cremated and we buried their ashes wit her. Olivia thought we would be arrested but the cat coffin is about 3 inches long.  We  paid a lot of money for the plot, I think 6500.  There are six spots available.  Dan and I will be buried with Amy. We just took a small shovel and dug a hole to bury the ashes.  The choice at the cemetery was one spot, two spots or six spots.  Since we both wanted to be buried with Amy, we chose the six spots.

We usually camp with her and her husband Larry(Dan's brother).  We didn't go this summer because Dan was sick.  I really missed hanging out with them.  Pennie and I always joke about having a camping reality show!! We discuss all of our episodes and man oh man, would we have a ton of funny episodes!!  We even plan our flash back episodes. All we need is a TV station to sponsor us! I am thankful to have Pennie as a sister-in-law! You don't get to choose your relatives but I would have chosen her!