Thesis defense

It's been a tough week. The woman who helped look after me when I was a teenager passed away this week. She & her family were kind enough to take me in as a boarder while I went to school away from my home community, and I always felt as though she'd been my surrogate mother. I was blessed to have known her, and it's going to be tough to not have her around.

Her funeral was yesterday. Today, I defended my thesis (successfully, as it happened). I'm glad to be finally finished my graduate degree, but victory is bittersweet.

Time heals all wounds. I wish time would go ahead and speed up right about now.

Goodbye :(

Goodbye to one of the kindest, gentlest souls I have ever known. I'll forever miss my Marie.