Dear Friends,

It was a dark and stormy night with my mother lying in a hospital bed.

I arrived shortly after 8 PM to be told that I had just missed 44 of her friends piling into her room at once to sing Christmas carols - her favorite. They had all come for her; and still more to come! And the banker. And the doctor. And the preacher. Friends of years. Friends of months.

I know you would have been there.

Sometimes she could speak, and sometimes she could not. Some could not find it within themselves to go into the room, to see her as she was.

That morning was foggy and overcast - we could not see the cars from her window, but my mother only had eyes for the people in the room.

I asked her, "Are you afraid?"

She shook her head, "No."

And the day cleared up. And the fog rolled back. And the clouds slowly went from the sky. And night fell.

I whispered in her ear how much she meant to me. She put her arms around me for a little while, as if I were still a child.

"I love you."

Her husband, Tom, and I sat for hours, holding her hand.

On December 15th, 2007 at 7:45 PM, with only one cloud in the Texas sky, with the stars so clear above us, with her mother and father, with her husband, with her sister and nephew, with her neice and her daughter and her son, Tamara Hanson stole away into the night.

"I love you all."

I am not afraid.

Alan Shields
Her Loving-but-Difficult Son

PS: A memorial service will be held on Saturday at St. Andrews United Methodist Church (5801 W. Plano Pkwy, Plano, TX 75093). In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Journey of Hope Grief Support Center or Baylor Health Care System Foundation.