In Loving Memory................

......of my dear friend, Jerri, who lost her battle with cancer one year ago today -- March 14, 2010. She fought long and she fought hard. She never gave up and battled to the very end. She handled her cancer with grace and with an uptmost faith in God. She was not afraid to die. Jerri was one of the neatest people I've ever had the honor of knowing. We met at a quilting retreat about 12 years ago. We 'clicked' and became the best of friends. This post is quite 'picture heavy' but I just want to share Jerri with you.

Here she is at a quilting retreat, we had blue painter's tape on our stations with our names on them. Jerri put her tape on her chin so she wouldn't forget who she was!!!!

Jerri loved to learn new things and was never afraid to take on a new task. Here she is with fellow 6-pack quilters, Molly and Rhonda, try to figure out 'something' on the computer.

In 2008, we went on a quilting cruise. Oh My! What fun we had. Jerri always blamed me for her not being ready to go. I would stand outside her cabin door, knock on the door and say "Wackies on the Move". She would get frustrated with me because she would not be dressed yet! She gave me a hard time over this! LOL! Here is a picture of Jerri and I on the shuttle being transported over to the cruise ship.

One of our retreats was on Halloween weekend. Of course, being Wacky the way we are, we had to have some ghoulish times. Here is a picture of the "Wacky 6-Pack" in our crazy glasses.

Back to the quilting cruise, Jerri made each of us some Wacky Glasses to wear. We chose one of our "formal dinner nights" to wear the glasses. Here is Jerri modeling hers! We were quite the "hit" on this cruise. They say on every cruise, there is usually one group to watch -- we were the group!!!!

One of the things on my "quilting bucket list" was to go to the Paducah, Kentucky, quilt show. Here is a picture of Jerri, Kathleen, and myself on a bus full of quilters heading to Paducah. We were known as the "Brat Pac". We had not merged with the Wacky Women yet. One funny thing is Jerri had got cold on the bus and slipped on her long-sleeve denim shirt, but she put it on backwards! She looked at Kathleen and I and said "Now looky here! If we have a wreck, don't you girls let them try to twist my head around!"
Not long after my Mother died (she was also a quilter), one of my Mama's friends invited me to go on a quilting retreat and told me to bring a friend. The theme was "YaYa Quilters". Here is a picture of Jerri and I in our "YaYa" attire.

In 2008, several of our quilting group entered the Texas Department of Agriculture's "Go Texan" quilt contest. Each person purchased a fabric pack from the TDA and designed an original quilt block that depicted the theme. The theme for 2008 was Texas Wine. Our group was honored to have THREE members' blocks chosen -- Jerri, Rhonda, and myself. Here is Jerri posing with her winning block at the 'unveiling' at the Texas State Fair.

Oh how I miss my dear friend! When the "Brat Pac" quilters and the "Wacky Women" quilters merged into one group, we became the "Wacky 6-Pac". Sadly, there is only 5 of the 6-pac now, but we will always be the "Wacky 6-Pac" as our dear Jerri is always with us in spirit. There is never a time that we are together that her name, or something she said or did is brought up. She continues to live in our hearts and will be there forever. If I could have traded places with her, I certainly would have done it. What an awesome lady she was and what a wonderful friend!!!! I was so BLESSED to have her as my friend. I love you Jerri and I miss you more than you can imagine, but I take great comfort in knowing that I'll see you again.