When I first met Cheryl Everett, the disease had already started to rob her body. She constantly trembled or shook. Not majorly thanks to medications but it was present, none the less. She was beginning to have difficulty speaking, too. She knew what she wanted to say but sometimes had trouble making her mouth cooperate.
But what I took away from that first meeting that sticks with me seven years later are two things. Her ever present smile and her unmistakable love for her children and family. Well, three if you want to include the part where she said she liked me much better than Robert's first wife. We had some wonderful talks about her 2 favorite subjects - the Dallas Cowboys and Elvis Presley.
Since she lived with her mother and sister in Cleveland and then in Virgina with Robert's brother Craig, we didn't get that many opportunities to spend time with her. However, we did see her a few more times. And each time, you could clearly see the progressions of the disease. When we saw her a couple of years later, she was using a walker and struggling to say even a few words. Fast forward a couple of years, she spoke sentences of single words and had a feeding tube. She could no longer sit in a chair for very long because her uncontrolled jerking would cause her to fall out of a chair. Then, by the last time we saw her in 2009, she couldn't talk at all.
However, even when she couldn't talk, she could still smile. To the very end, she would always smile. And if you asked her if she wanted to watch an Elvis movie, she would get very excited as if she was ready to get up and dance to Elvis singing. Just like she did when her children were growing up. She loved Elvis and one of his movies never failed to make her happy.
On October 14, 2010, the Lord took Cheryl Everett home. While we all mourned her loss, we knew she was no longer suffering and that was dancing with Elvis. She will be missed by many but each person she touched in her life still carries a piece of her with them. And she lives on in the lives of each one of her children in some special way.
Cheryl, we love and miss you. Our lives are better for having known you.
But what I took away from that first meeting that sticks with me seven years later are two things. Her ever present smile and her unmistakable love for her children and family. Well, three if you want to include the part where she said she liked me much better than Robert's first wife. We had some wonderful talks about her 2 favorite subjects - the Dallas Cowboys and Elvis Presley.
Since she lived with her mother and sister in Cleveland and then in Virgina with Robert's brother Craig, we didn't get that many opportunities to spend time with her. However, we did see her a few more times. And each time, you could clearly see the progressions of the disease. When we saw her a couple of years later, she was using a walker and struggling to say even a few words. Fast forward a couple of years, she spoke sentences of single words and had a feeding tube. She could no longer sit in a chair for very long because her uncontrolled jerking would cause her to fall out of a chair. Then, by the last time we saw her in 2009, she couldn't talk at all.
However, even when she couldn't talk, she could still smile. To the very end, she would always smile. And if you asked her if she wanted to watch an Elvis movie, she would get very excited as if she was ready to get up and dance to Elvis singing. Just like she did when her children were growing up. She loved Elvis and one of his movies never failed to make her happy.
On October 14, 2010, the Lord took Cheryl Everett home. While we all mourned her loss, we knew she was no longer suffering and that was dancing with Elvis. She will be missed by many but each person she touched in her life still carries a piece of her with them. And she lives on in the lives of each one of her children in some special way.
Cheryl, we love and miss you. Our lives are better for having known you.
