A Special life

"Some people come into our lives and leave footprints on our hearts and we are never ever the same" 

(Flavia Weedn). 

I have often seen this quote on cards and I cannot find more truer words......people come and go but yesterday I said farewell to a very special and precious person who has definitely left her mark on my heart. Doctor Margaret McKenzie was one of the GP's I worked with in my last five years of nursing practice and they were the very best years of my nursing career.....in part because of Margaret and the other practice doctors. In a very cruel twist of fate Margaret succumbed to recurrent brain tumours so yesterday it was a celebration of her life and a chance to say goodbye..........

 Such beautiful flowers that reflected the essence of a beautiful soul.........

 I know family was everything to Margaret and that was evident today as her four children stood together and shared in their mother's life. She was also devoted to her patients and one would need to book in advance to secure a time with her. I was so pleased to catch up with Margaret a few months ago but was saddened when she told me she did not think she would see another Christmas. Her wonderful husband Peter has also devoted his life to medicine as a specialist physician and it seems so unfair that his life partner be taken before her time as she had so much more living to do. During my time of working with Margaret she had brain surgery twice and in 2009 I decided to get the staff together to make her a healing quilt. Two of the doctors joined in and for everyone it was a brand new experience. Some photos seem to be missing from my computer so I've taken some photos of the hard copies. We used the staff room to work in and it was such a delight to see everyone so commited to the unknown but the purpose was very special.........

 We got the young ones to do the bit on the floor......

 Even Jim (who is now my GP and would quite possibly be horrified to see himself here!!) had a go...

 But I was pleased to find these photos still on the computer especially of Margaret opening her gift........

 The joy on Margaret's face when she opened the package will be with me forever and one of the doctors informed me at the funeral that when she visited just days before Margaret died that she had the quilt on her lap........

 Some of the girls were into scrapbooking so made her a special photo album to show the stages of making the quilt.......

 Ironically it was Margaret's love of sewing that resulted in her recently taking up quilt classes herself and I know she was determined that each grandchild have a quilt. Such a huge loss to her family and the medical profession. I will never forget her gentle nature, the times she would say thank you if we worked late and her ability to put everyone else ahead of herself - not once did I ever hear her complain.......she will never be forgotten. So after such sadness it was lovely to see these photos while I was waiting for the train to go home........

They'd just been out for lunch and those smiling faces are certainly a great thing to be around for. 

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart" (Helen Keller)