God took my dear friend, Anne Marie, home to Heaven yesterday....
Heaven gained another Angel....
She put up a good fight but it was a fight that she could not win....
Over the past few months, I asked for prayers for Anne Marie , both here, and on my FB page...
I respected her privacy, not divulging what was going on....
But now that she is gone, I can tell you why I asked for prayers for her....
Anne Marie was one of the few people that I invited to Joe's Funeral Service on May 13th, 2024...
I even invited her to come back to our house with us and other family members for pizza which was Joe's favorite...
She was Family to me...
She came to visit again on June 16th and we spent a wonderful afternoon together...
I thought it was strange that I did not hear from her for about 3 weeks afterward so I messaged her...
She told me that she was afraid to tell me that she was sick as she did not want to cause me any extra stress and worry after what I had just gone through with Joe...
When she told me her symptoms , my heart sank...
Both of us were nurses so she knew that I also suspected what she did...
About 2 weeks later, when she saw her Dr., it was confirmed that she had uterine cancer...
After more testing, they feared it spread to the lymph nodes and possibly the lungs, making it Stage 4...
She had already lost over 20 pounds and was getting weaker by the day...
Chemo and radiation treatments were recommended but she never got that far...
It was an aggressive form of cancer and it was already taking it's toll...
Long story short, she was hospitalized 3 times for blood clots in her legs and lungs, low blood pressure and cardiac issues as she kept filling with fluid..
Each time they removed the clots from her lungs, the Dr.'s told her husband she might not survive the surgical procedure...
She told me that "God must not want me yet"
Being a nurse is a curse as far as I am concerned...
I knew what was wrong with Joe and what the outcome would be before he was even diagnosed and I also knew what was going to happen to Anne Marie...
I was devastated as I knew I was going to lose my best friend...
She was determined to keep working and was able to try working from home for a short time until she ended up back in the hospital before Christmas...
She would never leave the hospital again and was there for 44 days...
I could not bare going to see her and she did not want people to see her that way as she wanted people to remember her as she was before she became ill...
We messaged each other often but a few days ago, she was only responding with one word answers so I knew she did not want to talk and at that point, I honestly did not know what to say...
The last thing she messaged me was "Take care and I Love You"
I had the feeling that she was saying Good Bye to me...
When I saw that her husband Tony was calling me this morning, I started to cry even before I answered the phone as I knew my dear friend , who was like a sister to me for over 20 years , was gone...
Tony told me that she died, pain free, last night...
She had signed her DNR, wrote her own Obituary and left him instructions for her funeral...
This is just one of the horrible things that happened last year in 2024....
A year ago, I never would have imagined that I would lose both of them...
I am looking at Anne Marie's passing as a carry over from 2024 even though she passed away in 2025 because I have secretly been mourning her for the last few months...
It all started in 2024...it just took a bit longer for it to end...
Her suffering is over and for that I am ever so thankful...
I know she is in Heaven with her beloved Dad as she too had a special relationship with her Dad like I did...
And I know that Joe was there to welcome her, asking
"What the hell are you doing here"?
Anne Marie, you will be forever missed and forever loved...
Love You, my friend!
Hugs,
Deb
