Becky Gwilliam DePoe, Austin's Aunt, passed away from a cancerous brain tumor on Sunday, July 9, 2017. We went to her funeral in Polson, Montana on Saturday, July 15.
Becky came to Cardston the last weekend of April with Aunt Lily to a wedding. We got to visit with Becky then, and that was the last time we saw her. She came to stake conference when Austin got sustained as a counselor. Right before the meeting started, Martha told me that Becky thought she may have had a mini stroke because she had lost some feeling in her hand. They left right after the meeting and went home and went to the doctor and was diagnosed that night with a brain tumor.
Becky has already fought cancer twice. Her husband, Robert, died in November 2015 and her son Robert died from cancer in December 2015. She decided she wasn't going to go through chemotherapy and radiation again.
The week after her diagnosis she took her kids and grandkids on a last trip to San Diego. She had a seizure the night before they came home. That weekend all of her brothers and sisters gathered in Polson to spend time with Becky.
Her sisters took turns spending time with her for the next 2 months. She wasn't really in pain, but her health gradually declined. Her body was done, and we prayed that she could be released.
This was my Facebook post this week:
This smiling lady in red is Austin's Aunt Becky. She passed away this week from a brain tumor. Aunt Becky taught me that play is important, how to love unconditionally, how to make people feel at home and welcome, and that going through the refiner's fire makes us shine like silver. Aunt Becky shines like silver. The only good thing about her death is that she is now with her husband and son who died about 18 months ago. We love Aunt Becky!!!
Her funeral was very nice (even though the air conditioning wasn't on and the church was 80 degrees by the time the funeral was over. When we were there for Robert's funeral, the heat wasn't working). It was a great tribute to a great woman. I do have to say that one of my favorite parts is being in a funeral procession and watching police cars leading the procession and police at every intersection through Polsen blocking traffic. The Elmo Cemetery is 20 miles from Polson, and lots of cars pulled over and stopped while our mile-long procession passed.
The cemetery is a tribal cemetery and they sing a native song while they lower the casket to mother earth. They don't put it in a cement vault. Then we all take turns tossing some dirt into the hole. Then they plow the dirt in right while we are watching. When we were there for Robert's burial, there was a bird (owl, hawk, eagle?) that sat on the tree right next to us the whole time. Then it flew away as we left. I was looking around for a bird, but there wasn't anything. But then a small sprinkling of rain came while we were standing there on a sunny, 90 degree day. When we were back at the church watching a slideshow of Becky's life, one of the songs was "Holes in the Floor of Heaven" that talks about rain coming down reminding us that our loved ones are watching over us.
Don Thomason (Austin's Mom's cousin) told us that the Holy Ghost taught him at the funeral that Robert needed Becky and just couldn't do it without her. It is good for Becky and Robert but still sad for their kids and grandkids that are left without them.
Becky told us this very cool story when she was here in April. A good friend in their ward (Bishop Lundeen) woke up crying from a dream he had where Robert had come to him and asked him to invited Becky to go to the temple with them and for him to be in the prayer circle with her since she probably wouldn't get the chance very often. And Robert said to tell Becky that the veil was thinner than she thinks. So she went to the temple and this brother stood in the prayer circle with her and then told her afterwards about the dream. Becky was tearful as she told the story and then said that if the veil is really that thin, she better wash her dishes more often because it drove Robert crazy when she would let them pile up. That was the last time Becky went to the temple. When we heard the story, we all thought that the veil is thin as our loved ones are very near. But since I have thought the story probably also meant that her time on earth was short.
We went to Montana the night before the funeral and invited ourselves to stay with Larry and Carolyn Leavitt at their cabin on the lake. We got there at 8:30 at night and they said, hurry and get your swimming suits on so we went out on a boat ride and jumped in to swim for a minute and then Lucy and Carly went knee boarding on a surf board. Carolyn fed us a delicious 10:30 pm dinner and a delicious breakfast. This is our breakfast view. We were so grateful for their hospitality.
No comments:
Post a Comment