Happy New Year!

It is hard to believe that 2015 will end at midnight tonight. For me, the past year has been full of highs and lows, good times and bad times. Tonight, the slate is wiped clean, per say. We will all awake in a new year, full of new dreams, obstacles, and opportunities. My 2015 started 35 minutes into it, with a phone call I expected, yet still did not want to receive. My grandmother, Mamaw Liz, has fought the good fight, and at the start of a new year, she finished her race. Her daughter, my mother, and her husband were with her as she slipped away. She was a great woman, and I real forever cherish the memories of going to work with her at the courthouse. That was definitely not how I wanted to start my new year. Two days following my grandmother’s funeral, my daddy had a checkup with one of his doctors in Texarkana. Daddy had battled and beat cancer before, so we all expected the diagnosis he received. He did indeed have cancer again, but it was not the same as before. On Jan. 30, he received his first, and only, chemotherapy treatment. Due to his deteriorated health due to complications following a stroke, his body could not handle the treatment. My mother made the decision, based on his wishes, to forgo treatment and make the most of whatever time we had left with him. That time ended on May 16, when my daddy won his battle with what turned out to be lung cancer. In a span of four months and fifteen days, my life was completely turned upside down. 2015 was not all about loss for my family and me. In February, I started working here at the paper. Although I have absolutely no journalism experience, I have come to truly enjoy this unexpected career change. I have a friend who teaches, and we regularly joke that we should swap degrees, as she majored in journalism in college, and I, in education. Working for the paper, I have had the opportunity to meet many interesting people, and look forward to continuing that into the New Year. Since I had a full time job, as school prepared to let out for the summer, my husband and I were in a frenzy trying to find someone to watch our kids during the break. Every time I thought I had found someone, they would find out I had three, or their ages, and decide it would be too much for them. Just when I was about to decide I would have to quit my job, God placed a person in our lives that has become so much more than a baby sitter. Danny and I had met Shanda Shuler at a friend’s house, although we really did not talk much. As it turned out, she was looking to keep kids in her home, and the day my husband contacted her about it, she had a parent with three children back out on her. My kids fell in love with Shanda and her family, and we have become lifelong friends. And through Shanda, I have met other amazing women, with whom I have also developed a great friendship with. My life would be so much different, had God not caused our paths to cross. To continue reading this article, purchase the December 31st edition of the Steel Country Bee, or go to our online e-edition at: http://www.etypeservices.com/Daingerfield%20BeeID312/default.aspx