Our dear friend, Phil Kesler passed away last night after a brave struggle with cancer. We were so blessed to have had him as a friend and our hearts ache for his sweet wife, Heidi and their 3 year old little girl, Eden. Words are hardly adequate to express this loss. Richard sang with Phil for so many years, and last night we listened to Phils beautiful voice as he sang on the Kid Stuff CD. "Sing, sing a song, sing out loud, sing out strong. Sing of good things, not bad. Sing of happy, not sad." There are many happy times with Phil that we can sing of, but our hearts are indeed sad and we will miss him so much.
There was a time in my life, up until about 10 years ago, where I still believed that my Mom and Dad were super heroes and that they would never grow old, or sick. They could never die. I had never experienced "death" and it was such a far removed concept to me. This last year has been filled with many experiences with death and seeing people who are close to us leave this world prematurely. I now realize how truly mortal we all are and it scares me. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that naive self of mine before I understood how much death is a part of life. I am truly grateful for the knowledge I have of the Plan of Salvation and that I know that someday it will "all be OK", as my Mom put it. Right now it hurts, and we don't understand it, but someday we will and our reunions with loved ones will be so glorious. Our hearts and prayers and love go out to Heidi and Eden and we know that Phil will be watching over them.