A few weeks ago, we got a call from my husband’s brother Louis. We thought he is just going to say hi, just like what he always does, but unfortunately he had to tell us the bad news. My husband’s mother, Lily, has died after years of battling cancer. We were all shocked on the news. We all knew that Lily fought for her life and she wanted to stay alive. It was heart-breaking.  My husband and I decided to immediately fly to Melbourne to help with all the preparations for her memorials.

The whole family have decided to have a simple but memorable memorial for their mother. My husband’s eldest sister, Hannah, chose a simple white dress for their mother to wear. She and their other sister were the ones in charge of their mother’s clothes and how she is going to look like. On the other hand, Louis and my husband were the ones in charge of the funeral.

I helped my husband plan the whole memorial for their mother. We called and e-mailed their relatives and told them about Lily’s death. We also contacted her closest friends—most of them are teachers she worked with when she was still teaching at the community college. I’m sure that wherever Lily is, she is delighted to see all her family and friends gather to say goodbye to her.

The memorial is almost set, and now the only thing that was left to do is to get her a headstone. After hours of searching online, we ended up getting a headstone for Lily from Astral Stone in Melbourne. We chose a simple headstone for her, nothing too fancy. Her headstone wrote, “In the loving memory of Lily: A loving mother, nana and teacher. A woman of substance.”   I think those phrases perfectly described Lily as a person.

I have attended a couple of memorials before, but I have to say that this one is the most memorable. It was definitely a celebration of Lily’s life—all of the good things she has done for a lot of people, including her students, colleagues, friends, neighbours, family and most especially, her kids. People cried, of course, but laughter also echoed the room. Lily has lived a challenging but fun life—I’m sure she does not want us to cry over her death. She has always been a fighter, always reminding us that everyone will eventually die so death should not upset someone. Lily is definitely going to be missed, but I’m pretty sure that she is happy wherever she is right now