Life is a very unpredictable and fragile thing and often it passes us so quickly that we lose sight of the things that matter most.

I remember the first time I ever met Linda Hale. She was moving into the apartment next door to mine and like most residents getting a new neighbor, I hoped that she would mind her own business as that tends to make the best neighbors. I was getting out of my car at the time and she had been moving things in with her son for most of the day. It was late in the evening and the street lamps had come on.

She waved at me and of course she had no idea I was hearing impaired at the time but her waving at me caught my attention. She said, Hey, would you like a turkey for you and your kids for Thanksgiving. My mom gave me this sixteen pound turkey and I just dont think I need it. Id like for you to have it.

I smiled at her and thanked her and a few minutes later she came out of her apartment with a sixteen-pound turkey. It was the turkey I used for Thanksgiving last year and it really made me think how grateful I was to have been blessed with the gift of this turkey from a woman who didnt know me from Adam. From there, Linda became the picture-perfect idea of a neighbor. Every time I saw her she stopped to say hello and let me chat with her beautiful and amazing dog, Snowy.

Snowy was fantastic and so well-behaved and the most beautiful snowy white dog Ive seen in my life. Seeing her and Linda walking around the neighborhood became a cherished moment where I could go stand outside in the sun and chat with someone who had a way of making all of your worries melt away.In the past few months, Miss Linda took a turn for the worst. She was in a bad car accident and things began to go downhill quickly.

At this time, I began visiting her more in her own apartment and eventually she began asking me to drive her places when she was no longer able to on her own. I enjoyed the time I spent with her, she even asked my daughter to come and vacuum for her which Chaeli found to be very fun and did with a wonderful servants heart. Miss Linda told me on multiple occasions that I was like a second daughter and how proud she was to know me and how wonderful my daughter had grown up to be with a wonderful work ethic.

I loved chatting with her about my newest book releases and the various authors and books she enjoyed. I recall how she explained to me that she and her son, Stephen, had a mutual love of reading and that it made her so happy that she knew an author. She told me she knew I would go far because I had a kind and helpful heart and that she was thankful to God to have met me.

I will miss my time with Linda very much but I will forever hold her precious pearls of advice and wisdom close to my heart. The blessing of having met and spent time with Linda Hale is a gift from God and I will always remember her beautiful smile, her love of CCR and the amazingly strong woman she was. My respect and admiration for her go beyond words, but I know that she is in a better place, no longer in pain and smiling down on all of us from Heaven today. As the Bible states in John 5:24, 'Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.' And so, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the woman I was blessed, we were all blessed, to know will see us all again in a place where we can all be filled with the joy and contentment that God intended for humanity. I feel the best words to leave you all with are:

Isaiah 57:1-2, 'The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. 2 Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.'