Saying goodbye

Tomorrow is the viewing for one of my firehouse buddies from way back. He passed away on Thursday. I've known John for about 20 years or so. He was a chief at my fire department for a while and just an all around good guy. He had a Harley and used to bug Rick and I to take some motorcycle trips with him and his wife, Barb. He never really thought about the fact that Rick's motorcycle was not a comfortable one and gave me a sore butt after just an hour riding on it; he just wanted to hang with his friends. I went to high school with John and Barb's daughter, Tori. Their son Jes rode his first ambulance call with me. Although we might not have seen each other as often as we'd have liked, our lives were intertwined in so many ways. When Rick passed away, John and his family were there for me. Now, it's my turn to be there for John's family, as much as the reason pains me.

With them in mind, I set about making some sympathy cards. I have a wonderful set from Verve Stamps with some beautiful sympathy and loss sentiments and I put it to use, along with some scraps and embellishments from my stash.

Here is my favorite of the three, which is the card I made for his wife.

The background stamp is from Our Daily Bread. They have a whole line of stamps that are shaped perfectly to go with Spellbinders Nestabilities. This card is based after a sketch by Amarylis on scrapbook.com.

I made this card for his daughter and her family. The large flower is from the Dollar Store but the small ones are Wild Orchid Crafts. The butterflies and corners are done with punches. The ribbon is from Hobby Lobby.

 And finally, the card for his son and his son's family. I wanted to lean a bit more to the masculine side with this one. As you can see, I used various Spellbinders dies for all three cards. I love my Nesties! Thank you for stopping by today, and I hope my next post isn't nearly so depressing.

 

Rest in Peace, John. You will be missed more than you could ever know.