| Kathleen Marie Snyder November 24, 1950 ~ February 23, 2006 |
For Our Mother
We feel it's unjust that we have to sit here and write to you in words the depth of our
love, respect and admiration for you. Because no matter how much we write or how
eloquent we put our thoughts to paper, it wouldn't even begin to tap into or do justice to
the feelings that run so deep inside each one of us.
We're trying to imagine what life will look like without you in it. You were always a
mother first, and because of that, you were a part of everything. No matter how close or
how far we lived from you, you were HOME. For so long, you have been our place of
love and refuge in this crazy, mixed up human world. You were our gift from God to help
us navigate through still and restless waters.
We thank you, Mom, for your tireless efforts to encourage us to be solid, productive,
loving, strong, compassionate people. Because of you, we became the kind of people
that see the value of endless grace, generosity and human kindness. But what we will
remember and cherish the most will be your unfailing love for us. You showed us how to
love in small and big ways. The small ways over a lifetime add up to be pretty big ... but
what they mean to us are the tokens of love scattered along the way that always
reminded us that you were in our corner.
All the times we came to you the night before a project was due and we didn't know
where to start, and never letting us sit around too long feeling sorry for ourselves after a
big disappointment, hemming pants the day of an important interview, being a short
order cook for the whole lot of us and let us not forget the countless times we dug into
your purse for a 10 spot. You were always available. And all of those little things were
amazing and important... and we hold them so dear to us. And in many ways, they are
what life's all about.
But Mom, the big ways you loved us... those ways are what truly defined us as people.
Because frankly, when you decide to have 6 children ... at any given time, one of us
always had a big life issue we were facing. You never gave up on any of us. Never. You
wept for us when we were lost, you fought for us when we were in battles bigger than
ourselves, and you celebrated with us in all our successes. And we love you for being
our compass when we lost perspective, and our sounding board when we needed to
vent, and our cheerleader when we didn't think we had one more ounce of courage left.
We knew we could always look to you to love us. We are all so different ... and you
embraced our differences and loved us differently and equally and unconditionally. And
lady, we loved being loved by you.
The hardest part of our relationship with you was watching you struggle with a body that
couldn't keep up with your amazing spirit. You fought like a champion ... and we can say,
without a doubt, Ali had nothing on you, kid. You are OUR hero. For so many reasons.
And watching you go through your struggles with such honor, dignity, perseverance and
courage is a legacy that will never be taken for granted. It has taught us to be better
human beings ... better Christians. Your sacrifice and struggle brought many of us closer
to God. Your life gave us gifts that transcend what we have here on Earth. Because in
some ways, for some of us, you lead us to Heaven too. How incredible is that!
So, while we miss you here, we know you are helping God prepare us all a home for a
later date. And He's lucky, because you're really quite good at that. And that's what
we're going to hold onto until we see you again. To know you are busy doing what you
are best at ... but without a broken body ... without pain ... without struggle. And
besides, you have one more baby to raise up there that's been waiting for you a very
long time. And you KNOW Grandpa's not changing any diapers. Give Daniel & Grandpa
a kiss for us. We will never forget. We will never stop missing you. And we never, never
stop loving you.
Forever Yours,
Jason, Sarah, Adam,
Rebecca, Elizabeth and Jake
We feel it's unjust that we have to sit here and write to you in words the depth of our
love, respect and admiration for you. Because no matter how much we write or how
eloquent we put our thoughts to paper, it wouldn't even begin to tap into or do justice to
the feelings that run so deep inside each one of us.
We're trying to imagine what life will look like without you in it. You were always a
mother first, and because of that, you were a part of everything. No matter how close or
how far we lived from you, you were HOME. For so long, you have been our place of
love and refuge in this crazy, mixed up human world. You were our gift from God to help
us navigate through still and restless waters.
We thank you, Mom, for your tireless efforts to encourage us to be solid, productive,
loving, strong, compassionate people. Because of you, we became the kind of people
that see the value of endless grace, generosity and human kindness. But what we will
remember and cherish the most will be your unfailing love for us. You showed us how to
love in small and big ways. The small ways over a lifetime add up to be pretty big ... but
what they mean to us are the tokens of love scattered along the way that always
reminded us that you were in our corner.
All the times we came to you the night before a project was due and we didn't know
where to start, and never letting us sit around too long feeling sorry for ourselves after a
big disappointment, hemming pants the day of an important interview, being a short
order cook for the whole lot of us and let us not forget the countless times we dug into
your purse for a 10 spot. You were always available. And all of those little things were
amazing and important... and we hold them so dear to us. And in many ways, they are
what life's all about.
But Mom, the big ways you loved us... those ways are what truly defined us as people.
Because frankly, when you decide to have 6 children ... at any given time, one of us
always had a big life issue we were facing. You never gave up on any of us. Never. You
wept for us when we were lost, you fought for us when we were in battles bigger than
ourselves, and you celebrated with us in all our successes. And we love you for being
our compass when we lost perspective, and our sounding board when we needed to
vent, and our cheerleader when we didn't think we had one more ounce of courage left.
We knew we could always look to you to love us. We are all so different ... and you
embraced our differences and loved us differently and equally and unconditionally. And
lady, we loved being loved by you.
The hardest part of our relationship with you was watching you struggle with a body that
couldn't keep up with your amazing spirit. You fought like a champion ... and we can say,
without a doubt, Ali had nothing on you, kid. You are OUR hero. For so many reasons.
And watching you go through your struggles with such honor, dignity, perseverance and
courage is a legacy that will never be taken for granted. It has taught us to be better
human beings ... better Christians. Your sacrifice and struggle brought many of us closer
to God. Your life gave us gifts that transcend what we have here on Earth. Because in
some ways, for some of us, you lead us to Heaven too. How incredible is that!
So, while we miss you here, we know you are helping God prepare us all a home for a
later date. And He's lucky, because you're really quite good at that. And that's what
we're going to hold onto until we see you again. To know you are busy doing what you
are best at ... but without a broken body ... without pain ... without struggle. And
besides, you have one more baby to raise up there that's been waiting for you a very
long time. And you KNOW Grandpa's not changing any diapers. Give Daniel & Grandpa
a kiss for us. We will never forget. We will never stop missing you. And we never, never
stop loving you.
Forever Yours,
Jason, Sarah, Adam,
Rebecca, Elizabeth and Jake
