A beautiful but sad day

Today Ella got herself all gussied up for church. She picked a pretty black dress, her jeweled butter fly clip, her golden shoes, her new pearl necklace and mommy let her have some eye shadow and lip gloss. After she was all done dressing she said to me. "Now I am going to be MUCH prettier than all the other girls in my class." Jon thinks she has started thinking like a girl already. I have no idea where she got that, I don't think I have ever told her anything like that! I thought it was funny though.





After we got home from church I found an e-mail from my neighbor. Her dad (also our neighbor) Died this morning at around 10:30. I am not that good with words, that is my sisters' area of expertise, but I wanted to say a little about Bo, so that when Ella is older she can read about him and how special he once was to her.

Bo was a special man and well liked by everyone. He and Ella had a special bond. They met when Ella was just 10 months old when we moved in. Bo fell in love with her and the love was mutual. He called her his "baby girl". His wife often commented that he liked Ella better than his own grandchildren. That he was more loving to her than she had ever seem him be to a little one. Ella was always excited to see him. Bo often came home during the day several times and whenever Ella happened to see him out front she would race over to him yelling " Mista Bo!!!!" and give him huge hugs. She loved to visit him in the evenings and cuddle up with him in his big arm chair, share his supper or dessert and watch TV. They were kindred spirits from the start. 10 months ago Bo had a major heart attack. He never really recovered. He suffered from brain damage caused by lack of oxygen to the brain. Although we visited him once in the nursing home, he didn't recognize me or his "baby girl". Ella asked about Bo often at first, then less. Just a couple of weeks ago she looked longingly at their front door and asked me if we would "Ever get to see Mr. Bo again". Today I had to explain to her that the answer was Never. That Bo had died today and gone to Heaven. She wanted to know why. She told me it wasn't fair and she wanted Bo to come back home. I explained that after being sick a long time, that Bo was now home with Heavenly Father and we would have to wait to see him until we went to Heaven too. I know that eventually she will forget Bo, except for the pictures and stories we tell, but I will never forget how kind and wonderful he was to my girly. Bo will be sorely missed.