Angel on Earth and now in Heaven :'(

If you never had a chance to meet Nancy Ahern LeFevre... my heart goes out to you. She was it. The whole package; beautiful, smart, kind, caring, joyful, encouraging, hopeful, faithful, positive... (insert ALL other words that =AWESOMENESS).

I've known Nancy for a good part of my life and for that I'm thankful. As luck would have it... turns out we're even related (somewhere along our family trees... more like a forest I think!). Nancy had recently been diagnosed with advanced staged lung cancer which had metastasized to her brain. While we all struggle to understand how that could possibly be a legitimate plan that God had, Nancy fought. She fought right up to her last days.

I recently had the opportunity to take pictures at Nancy's daughter, Nicole's wedding. What a fantastically GRAND day that was. Prior to the wedding I met with Nicole and her (now) husband Guy, and Nancy. They planned their wedding at Nancy and Joe's house. Joe (Nicole's father), built a big ol' barn for the big day. After getting the lay of the land and figuring out where the perfect picture spots would be, I got to visit with Nancy a little bit.

We talked about her radiation treatment. We talked about the wedding. We talked about our family connections. But what we mostly talked about was my mom. Nancy wasn't really interested in what was going on with herself. She cared about how my mom was feeling. My mom is a lung cancer survivor (5 years now). She went through some pretty aggressive treatment and surgeries also. I told Nancy of the difficulties my mom had with medications, chemo, etc... hoping she'd understand that she wasn't alone in this fight. Nancy prayed that mom would stay cancer free and never have to go through that again.

Can you imagine? Nancy was fighting the biggest fight of her own life, was scared about the next steps in that fight, but her concern at the time was... my mom?!?! THIS was Nancy. One of the most selfless people God has ever created. And now... she is there, with Him, ready to serve.

Nancy passed away on Friday, July 29th, 2016.

I sang Somewhere Over The Rainbow at her funeral (as requested by Nicole. I guess it was one of Nancy's favorite songs). Question: "If birds fly over the rainbow, why then oh why can't I?" Answer: You can Nancy and you do.