Background Music: Memories, I Will Always Love You, You Are So Beautiful To Me, One Day More, I Dreamed A Dream
The Beautiful Piano
The last key of mom’s beautiful piano has been played. Her eighty-eight years of life have now come to an end, and she has joined the heavenly orchestra of our Great Conductor.
It is only fitting that mom lived in years, the same amount as there are keys on a piano; because the piano was such an important part of her life, from when she was a little girl, to the age of eighty-eight, when her body finally gave way to sickness, and she could no longer sit and play.
Mom made many friends through playing the piano. She gave lessons to many, some who never forgot her. One of the highlights of mom being a piano teacher happened when she was in the hospital last September. A hospital employee recognized mom as being her piano teacher from fifty years ago. They were thrilled to see each other after such a long time.
Some of mom’s closest friends were those who gathered to sing at the piano bar in the old Padre Hotel Lounge. Those were some of the fondest memories mom had, and treasured to the very end.
She worked full time at the Downtowner Inn Motel until she was eighty-five years young. She loved her job and didn’t really want to retire, but physically needed to.
Mom had a lot of happy memories in her lifetime. She also had a lot of trials, but what she had to face at the end proved to be the greatest challenge of her life. In September 2012, she was diagnosed with being in an advanced stage of cervical cancer . She had no symptoms of having the disease, until it was too late for her to do anything and still maintain any quality of life. She kept a positive attitude to the end. And she was resolved to the thought that she would soon be with her Maker.
With the help of Optimal Hospice, mom was able to live out her life comfortably at home with her family. I don’t even want to imagine what life would have been like for mom, and our family, had it not been for the outstanding care and support that Optimal Hospice gave. They were truly a Godsend, and we will forever be grateful.
Mom, Linda Smith, was a nurturing and loving mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She leaves behind three children and their families. She is survived by one older sister and her family. Mom always remained close with family, no matter the distance between. There’s no words to express how deeply she will be missed.
Though mom is gone, she leaves behind the beautiful piano of her life, as a legacy to live on through all of us; family and friends alike, who knew and loved her.
May her music be a source of comfort and strength.
Mom always encouraged Dale to be himself at any cost. Though others didn’t understand Dale’s unique spirit, mom did and she never tried to squelch who he was by nature. Mom and Dale shared a very special bond. Though Dale could be quite the handful, it was the challenges that he brought to mom’s everyday life that were the greatest lessons of unconditional love.
Dale has been reunited with our dad and mom and our two brothers, Paul and Jimmy. He is in loving arms in heaven and loving hearts on earth. Rest in peace brother!
My oldest brother Paul passed away on the 5th of January this year (2017). He was mom’s pride and joy, no matter how old he got, she always lovingly referred to him as her “Little Paul.”
Paul was a very devoted son to both mom and dad, but he had an especially close relationship with mom. It was difficult for mom because Paul lived across the United States from her, but they spent a lot of time writing letters to each other and talking on the phone. When Paul would come to visit, he and mom would spend hours on end talking and drinking coffee together. They had a very special bond.
As sad as I am to lose my oldest brother, I’m happy to think about mom and her “Little Paul” being reunited in a much better place. Rest in peace brother!
My mom worked a fulltime job as bookkeeper and desk clerk at a local motel until she was forced to retire at age eighty-five due to a back injury. I remember when the minimum wage increased in 2007; my mom was already in her eighties. She knew that it was a hardship on her employers having to pay more money out per hour for all the employees, so my mom began working one day a week for free to offset the increase. When minimum wage increased again the next year (2008) mom began working two days a week for free. It didn’t have a thing to do with job security, it was a mitzvah (good deed) on mom’s part; mom loved her job and she loved the people she worked for and wanted to help them. Her employers didn’t expect her to work for free, but she didn’t want them to have to pay her more than what they could afford. That’s the kind of person she was.
