My mother has finally found peace

On Wednesday May 30^th, 2007 my mother passed away.

My mother Bodil was a strong and determined woman whose first priority in life was her family, and the next priority was given to every that child she ever met. When she was a child, she helped raise her youngest sister, then she became a live-in nanny, before she went to school to study children's education.

When my mother was diagnosed with ALS in 2002, she was the leader of a day care and after school care program that she has created and helped build up from the ground.

My mother was born on January 9, 1954, and she was only 53 years old, when she died after battling ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) through more than five years.

Throughout the last six years my mother has proven to be stronger than anyone ever imagined, she kept on fighting, but in the end ALS won, and my mother decided that she had had enough.

This photo is one of the very last photos that we have of my mother, I took it less than one hour before she died, and as you can probably tell, she was happy right to the end. The photo is of my older brother, his fiancee, their daughter Caroline and my sons Roshane and Skyler Kai.

There is no doubt that these three children, my mother's only grandchildren were the reason, why my mother lived for this long despite being unable to speak, move and breathe.

My mother's funeral was on Monday June 4^th, and she had given us such detailed instructions of how she wanted everything to be. She wanted a singer to sing a Danish song called Om Lidt (In a little bit...), a song that about the quietness that is to come, and about the happiness of life. My mother had also decided what kind of cake that should be served afterwards, and she had decided that she wanted her mother and her sisters to come over for dinner afterwards. She had decided where she wanted to burried as well - at my parents' farm.

This photo of my younger brother and my son, really shows of how we all felt on this sad day of my mother's funeral.

A young local girl sang the song so perfectly, and I know it was just what my mother had wanted. There were more than 100 people at the church paying their tribute to my mother, and the flowers were simply amazing. Although my mother was diagnosed more than five years ago, it was obvious that she had not been forgotten in the local community.

This is where my mother had chosen to be put to rest, and I could not think of a better place. It is the highest place on the farm, and you can see everywhere from here. We put all the flowers from the funeral there waiting for her.

This white rose is from my grandmother's bouquet,

I thought this beautiful white rose said it all....

from mother to daughter.