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Life's Dash
I once read of a man who stood to speak,
At the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on the tombstone,
From the beginning to...
The end.
He noted that first came the date of birth,
And spoke of the following date with tears,
But then spoke of what mattered most...
The life between those years.
That dash represents a lifetime,
A life spent here on earth...
And all of those whom once were loved,
Know what that line is worth.
It matters not how much we own;
The cars...the...home...the cash,
What matters most is how we lived and loved,
How we spent that "dash."
So think about this long and hard...
Are there things you'd like to change?
You never know how much time is left,
What still can be rearranged.
If we could slow down long enough,
Consider what's true, what's real.
Take the time to understand,
What others may think or feel
Be less quick to anger;
Show appreciation more,
Love the people in our lives
Like we've never loved before.
Lets treat each other with respect,
And more often wear a smile...
Remembering that this dash,
May just last a while.
When your Eulogy is read,
Your life's actions to re-hash...
Will you be proud of what is said,
Of how you spent your dash??
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| First let me say that this day December 1,1999 has
truly been the worse day of my life all of ours. When receiving the news about Jill, the
pain was so immense pretty much indescribable. My prayer for all of you that
view this site is if you have not been through the death of a child that you never have to. I am grateful for the support I have
found through MISS Children the friends I have made through it and other various
sites without this support my life would not be where it is today and that is writing this. Thank you for the encouragement
and willingness to do this, especially for Carolyn Mayfield, who has
made this site possible. Jill's date of birth is September 25, 1980. Jill was to be married
to Albert McDonald on December 25, 1999. On December 1, 1999 I received
a phone call after leaving work to go to a doctor's appointment. Upon
doing, so, I received a phone call from her fiancé on my cell phone in the
parking lot of the doctor's office saying that Jill had been an
automobile accident with an eighteen wheeler tractor trailer rig. Albert
said that he was at home and my sixteen-year old son who was visiting them before they were to be married was at work and Jill
was going 2 miles down the road to get pizza for her and Albert and had
taken her new puppy with her. They do not know for sure what caused the
accident the only thing that makes any sense at all is that the puppy had to
have gotten in her lap, under her feet and distracted her some way where
she crossed the center line and hit the eighteen wheeler, the paper said almost directly straight on.
Jill was driving a new tracker. There were no drugs or alcohol involved in this accident. Jill lived a
good life. Albert said she was being airlifted to the trauma center. I myself went back to work and called the hospital to find out her
condition. They told me the doctor was talking to her father who went to
work each season there and that he would call me back. Me thinking it was
normal for him to be talking to them because he was living there and working
there at that time. I thought nothing about it. I could only imagine my daughter
being hurt bad. No phone call came from the doctor, but her father did
call and said that she didn't make it. Since then, her fiancé told me that
Jill did not arrive alive at the hospital and that her last words spoken were "God Please Take Me Now".
This tells me two things one that she was in immense physical pain and two she left this earth with the peace of knowing she was going to
heaven. Jill was a Christian and shared about her relationship with Christ with anyone who would listen to her. For anyone that knew, Jill
would tell you these two things 1) she loved her family and 2) yes she loved our
Lord. Our lives will never be the same. Some days are worse
than others. All we can do is pray and ask for his strength to get us through this for this is what Jill would want from us. We love her and
miss her terribly and try to hold on to the many good memories we have for our precious angel.
We Love You and Miss You Jill and will be with
you in God's time not ours. |
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I would like to thank those who helped our family during a very
devastating and difficult time. A special thanks to Mark Seagle our Pastor and John Johnson our Music Director at
Emmanuel Baptist Church in Crestview, Florida. I would also like to thank and recognize
Faye Crawford, from New Beginnings Church in Crestview, Florida.
Faye was the Chaplain at Jill's funeral and is also a very dear and close friend of both myself, Jill and my other children. I would
like to thank Tom Smith for reading the letter I wrote to Jill, as I know
it was difficult and appreciate it. To all of you,
I thank you for making the service beautiful and supporting us in our
time of sorrow. I would also like to thank the fellowship for all of their love and concern and support.
You all are like family to us. The locals in the community showed us just what real
reaching out to others was all about and it was deeply appreciated. For my
friends I thank you and love you dearly as I do the Monday Night Big Book Group and other groups I
am in contact with. Thanks to all who have supported us as we couldn't have made it this far without any of you.
WE ARE
SINCERELY GRATEFUL...
GOD BLESS EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU
DOTTIE CAMP
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MOTHER OF JILL
You are
Listening to:
Traditional Written By: John
Newton Copyright Unknown
Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come
'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer's ear
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds
And drives away his fear
Must Jesus bear the cross alone
And all the world go free?
No, there's a cross for ev'ryone
And there's a cross for me
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