Thank You Mary Striley!!

I received this picture of Mary, and her son Jake a couple of weeks ago. And now, Mary and her little boy are dead from a murder/suicide. Her son Jake was shot in the head while sitting in a high chair, and Mary was shot in the head in a bedroom. Her boyfriend took full responsibility, and then killed himself. I watched the news the other morning and they mentioned something about a murder/suicide in Orange but there were no names mentioned. Then that night when I picked up the newspaper, and saw a photo of Mary, my heart dropped. How does this happen to someone that is so positive. I don't pretend to understand these things. It's taken me a couple of days to write this ,so please be patient with me as I struggle through this. I didn't think this would grab my heart the way it did, hurt the way it did, but I just couldn't let it go.

How do I know Mary? She was a customer at Country Roads until her MS made it difficult for her to shop. The first slide show I sent out to my E-Mail Express customers with lots of pictures of the store, she responded so positive with an email telling me how much she enjoyed the pictures because of her disability she wasn't able to come into the store as much as she use to and this made her feel a part of the store. Then our friendship kind of grew from there. She would make comments on my blog and would often email me. All positive, each and every word!! She would send me pictures of kittens and puppies. When she found out we had a cat in our gardens that had just had kittens, Mary emailed me to give information on a vet that was low cost and could help us. She loved animals and a few weeks back she asked if I would do a post on my blog about a low cost pet adoption that was coming up in Orange County. Because of Mary, this little dog found a home with one of my dealers and friend, Cindy Finch. Because of Mary, this little dog also found a home because of Mary. Bill, Cindy's husband, went back to the shelter a week later and rescued Gay Oscar!

I hope, with all my heart, Mary knew what a difference she made in people's lives. Her kind heart, the smile in the picture above, illustrates the Mary that I knew through emails and blog comments. You know, I do this blog for a couple of reasons. Of course, being in business I do posts to promote Country Roads. I also write this blog to encourage myself to "write" each day! But what I've found out with both owning the store and having a blog, this has given me so many opportunities to reach out to people when I can, to help when I can. I'm a big believer in "paying it forward" and the "giving back" thing. And Country Roads, and my blog have allowed be to do this.

It will be awhile before the ache goes away in my heart from what happened to such a beautiful person. I have the above picture posted on my bulletin board to remind me of the person Mary was; kind, caring and compassionate. I'm very grateful I had Mary be a part of my life, even if it was only a short time. Every email she sent me ended with this quote, "Just when the caterpillar thought her world was over. . .SHE became a butterfly"!! I now know that Mary has finally become the most beautiful, loving butterfly ever!