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| MY LATE MOTHER DOROTHY BOYCE WITH MY SON TODD KORKER .. HER LAST CHRISTMAS 2003 |
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| MY LATE HUSBAND BART CHRISTMAS 2003 HIS LAST CHRISTMAS |
PS ….. THIS IS WRITTEN DEC 3, 2009…. As I reread this letter, I realized it was Bart’s last christmas and New Year and my mother’s too. Whew .. what emotions were stirred up. My mother went to be with the Lord March 12, 2004… and my husband died Dec 4, 2004 ..from a brain tumor nine months later.. Our times are certainly in God’s hands. God allowed me to have a special Christmas and New Year with both of them. My life has changed dramatically since that time. I am now living in Florida and happily remarried by God’s grace to a wonderful, Godly man named Joe...we married October 17, 2007 almost three years after Bart's passing away.
The will of God will not take you were the Grace of God cannot keep you.
Hi Friends and Family! Christmas Letter 2003
We just got home from a long time away. We had a blessed time with Mom at the Christmas show that was given by the Nursing Home she is living at. She had fun opening some of her gifts and it brought her some joy. She is in the dementia wing and she has been failing. She doesn't have much memory and it is difficult for the family who loves her so much seeing her go downhill. I see her almost every day and Bart sees her twice a week when we take her out to dinner, and we have a woman who comes over once a week to be with her or take her out also. It was great that some of the family came to visit over several weeks during Thanksgiving as that brought happiness into her life. She is losing interest more and more, I bring over old pictures of the children when they were younger and more recent ones and she never ceases to not become bored with them!! She just tells me the story over and over again .. like “Oh that is Dad with Chip and Todd fishing at Cape Cod” or the like!
Bart and I left a week ago Thursday and drove up to Charlotte to do some shopping and to stop at some toy train store stops.. There is an awesome Mall in Charlotte and one of my favorite restaurants.. the Village Tavern that we usually go to while in Winston Salem once a year right around the Thanksgiving holiday when it is all decorated for Christmas, but we tried the one in Charlotte.. it was all decorated for Christmas and so festive!! This restaurant is kind of our pre- Christmas place and it is so much fun, it is like our own little secret romantic place.
The next day we went to Cannon Village/Kannapolis where Bart purchased two pieces of Fontanini for me for Christmas that I am crazy about... one is the Carpenter shop and it reminds me of Jesus being a carpenter and my darling Bart was one too...so it reminds me of my TWO loves!! Also, he bought me the Jewish wedding Hoopa and the bride and groom.. which reminds me of the bride of Christ and that He is coming for us.. precious ones.. our Bridegroom cometh!!! When he gave it to me he told me he would marry me all over again, what a man. Last year he bought me the tower with the girl holding the lamp and the person on the top of the tower on the lookout (the intercessor!)... He also bought a woman with grapes which makes me think about Father God being our vinedresser... (In the book "Secrets of the Vine"... in one of the paragraphs it says that when a cluster of grapes falls and would otherwise be discarded, the vinedresser, picks it up, washes it off and then props it up again on the vine so it can flourish.. what a picture of God's love for us in our fallen state!! I have them up almost the whole year, as I can't seem to part with them after Christmas.. so they have become part of our decor!!! Bart loves them I think even more than I do!!
We then drove to and then to Burlington, N.C to a great Italian restaurant that my nephew Court, and his wife Stephanie had taken us to a few years ago, and then to Raleigh on Sunday for a toy train show. Bart’s eyes light up just like a little boy at these shows and he wants to tell me about all that he knows about the trains, where they came from etc. It is so cute.
After that we drove home, Sunday night, unpacked, did wash, repacked and were off again the next day. We stopped off to have Christmas with my Mom before we left and had a fun visit with her and she opened the rest of her gifts from us. Every moment with her is precious, we do have our times which as she progresses in this dementia gets worse and emotionally I have a very hard time and so does Bart, but I love her more than words can say and she knows that. We then drove to Jacksonville, Florida to visit first Chip and his family, as it was Suzanne's year for her family and they all live in the Jacksonville area.. we stayed overnight in a motel that Chip arranged for us and they had a room down the hall with the children. we had a great time with them and stayed up late talking until after 2:30 AM! The next day was Suzanne's birthday.
Then, we drove to Todd's and he and CJ had the best Christmas present I have ever gotten in my life... CJ is pregnant!!!
We are beyond ECSTATIC as you know the chances were only a miracle from God that this would EVER happen and so we are dancing the Hallelujah!!!! Todd is the son who had cancer and all of you had been praying for...Please pray now for a HEALTHY baby in early August!!!! We had a great time staying with them and a wonderful celebration dinner at a great Italian restaurant. Todd was in such shock when he heard the news, his knees buckled and he fell on the floor thanking God!!!. We stayed up until after 4 AM talking! What a miracle gift!
Next day we drove to my nephew Tommy and his wife Jackie, went to a great Christmas Eve party with them, they have wonderful friends, and spent Christmas with them. Christmas day they had a large get together with about 50 people all catered.. we really had a blessed time with them, they are so special to us.
The next day we drove to Port St. Lucie to stay overnight with my sister Gwen and her new husband Bob. We shared gifts and then went out to dinner. Bob and Gwen and Bob's Mom had gone over to Bob's family in Naples for Christmas and had a really nice time.
We then drove north to St. Augustine Florida and met Chip, Suzanne and the children and had a ball .. they took us to a great restaurant and I had crab legs.. then to all the shops that night in St Augustine it is a wonderful and fun place to go.. we topped off the evening by going on a train ride all through the city that played Christmas songs. We bought some really good Italian food back to our motel rooms and had such fun.. had breakfast together and then home ..... what a great Christmas!!
We wanted to take mother out to dinner tonight for an early New Year's, but she was not feeling up to it, so we will try for breakfast or lunch tomorrow and have our New Year's with her and we are planning to stay home tomorrow night or perhaps to a local church service.
God is SO GOOD... Bart has been as always a darling, my best friend and so helpful and supportive... As we are now approaching our 29th anniversary the middle of January, I am becoming more and more aware daily of the amazing gift God has given me... my precious husband. Bart says our marriage was made in heaven and I must agree with him! He grows dearer and dearer to me every day and I am so grateful for him.. I believe this is MY season, it is like I am holding on to each moment and treasuring all that God has given me.
Dearest friends and family, as this New Year approaches... I pray God's blessings upon you, may you truly experience a New Beginning this coming year .. may it be filled with expectancy and may God's grace be upon you.
You are loved
xoxo Donna
Happy New Year!!
We took mom out to dinner tonight to Hops .. she has such a hard time, Todd had made up a build a bear just for her with a recorder in it and a message from him.. we gave it to her tonight. after we gave it to her, we called Todd and Todd told her the news about he and CJ having a baby.. she was happy for them, but didn't remember that Todd had had cancer. She has such minute interest in anything and can't remember people, times, places etc, but she remembers the grandchildren and immediate family members and some of her friends... not always by name. she is in her own little world and it makes it hard to deal with for me to accept where she is at.
She has no interest in her appearance, taking baths, doesn't want to wash or do her hair etc.. and that was so totally unlike her. She was always so immaculate and caring about her appearance. She has a hard time eating and so we cut and feed her as she misses her mouth. We are there to take her out toe eat twice a week which she loves and a women who comes in once a week, but we are going to move that up to twice a week. She badly needs a haircut, but she keeps refusing to have anything done, even if I go with her. It is becoming exceedingly more difficult to take her out at all because she is like a rag doll in the wheel chair and it takes all of Bart's strength to lift her in and out of the wheel chair, but she does love getting out and she loves to eat out too, so it is worth it.
However, she loved the bear and kept asking Bart and I to press the button so Todd could sing to her!! she thought he was IN the bear singing!! That was the most excited we have seen her since the family was here at Thanksgiving. We did have a good time with her tonight. She keeps kissing our hands and telling us how much she loves us.. it is precious.. Just wish her quality of life was better. She knows she is loved, adored and honored that is what is important. She just adores Bart it amazes me the love they have for one another. I have been so blessed to have a husband who cares for my mother and puts himself out to the extent he does for her.
Tonight after dinner, we cleaned her room, took down the Christmas tree and her cards and put Todd's bear in the room on her end table and brought over some clothes I had washed for her.
Last night was New Year's Eve and we mostly stay home, we have had many church services here on New Year’s in years past, and thought of even going to church, but decided we love each others company so much, that we would do our family New Year…I make the traditional things Mom used to make every New Year's Eve... fondue, stuffed mushrooms, clam and onion dip and chips, Mom's shrimp marinara, Swedish meatballs and champagne! We tried to pick up mom the night before, but they said she had had a bad day and wanted to go to bed early.. and she was not feeling well to take her here for New Year's Eve, so we spoke to her and told her we loved her and she said we needed to come next year and she would have champagne with us! Bart said to me each year he loves me more and that he has loved our life together! How can anyone ask for more?
We got so interested in watching the story of John in the book of Revelation (the Apocalypse) on the Christian television network and then 30 years of music show on ETV and the ball going down that the night flew by. we decided not to have the champagne until another night when Mom can be with us here as we are concerned she won’t be here with us next year.
Well, have to get up early tomorrow morning.. as I am going in for some blood tests as I am hoping to be part of a group that studies people who have diabetes. I did so well over the Holidays by God's grace...
Anyway.. may you all be blessed with the most wonderful New Year.. my girlfriend heard the Lord say "An open Door in 2004".. may we all walk through the doors God has for us and find that this coming year will bring us closer to Him and His ways.
xoxo Donna
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