In Memory

Yesterday was a very sad but comforting day for me to say the least. It was the 1 year anniversary of the death of my friend Christina (see picture on left). She had her whole life ahead of her and it was tragically cut short at the age of 30. She was an amazing beautiful person with such a great personality. She could cheer you up in no time with her sarcasm and humor. You could spot her with a Mountain Dew a mile away since that was her favorite drink and she never let it get away from her side.

No matter who you were, she wanted to be your friend and just chill out or send you a "hey, whats up?" text at random times during the night. She did not care about the stereotypes of today's world but rather she focused on your inner beauty and who you are rather than who you are not. 

I remember her passing as if it were yesterday. I was sitting at a retreat house in Cape May, NJ waiting for the children to go to sleep. Sitting with my phone I checked Facebook and saw something from her sister and best friend saying that prayers were needed for Christina. I knew something was wrong and I got in touch with her sister and asked what was going on. She told me of the health issues Christina had and that she might not make it through the night. 

May 19, 2012 at 3:20am

That is the moment she took her last breathe and headed up to be with our maker in Heaven. I was absolutely crushed to hear that my friend of over 5 years was never coming back, never going to text me back, never going to make jokes about Wal-mart. She never had the opportunity to experience what true love was from a man, or raise a family, or find a career path she was happy with. She never had the chance to get healthy and be active to live a full and healthy life.

It took some decision making but a month later, I started on my own health journey. I wanted to keep in mind that Christina would not die in vane and something good would come out of it for another person. Something good that would come out of it for me. I started the track of being healthy and losing weight. My goal for the first anniversary of her passing was to be under 200 lbs by yesterday. Guess what? I did it with 2 weeks to spare. I also ended up being able to lose a total of 60 lbs.

My journey is still going with 48 lbs to lose and a lifetime of maintenance still ahead of me. It is not going to be an easy path but it will be well worth it, especially being able to celebrate life and all that I have been given. Who has inspired you to be healthy and to lose weight? Who are you on this journey for besides yourself? My journey was inspired out of death to breath new life into me and I am very proud of it.

☺Ashley☺