December 18, 2000

To my children: Taylor, Parker and any future additions that may bless our home and family. You are too young to understand the painful reality of the recent tragedy in the Ayars family. Your Grandma Karen is very sick and will soon go on to heaven with her father, all the angels, Punky, Goldie, Jesus and his father. Your memories of Grandma will be faint. We will show you pictures, and videos of her holding you, but they will not allow you to understand the wonderful depth of a woman that your Grandma Karen was. In her years on this earth, she played many roles: first a daughter, then a sister, a friend, a wife, a nurse, a mother and finally a Grandmother. She was magical in every role, proven by all the lives she touched and the love she has given. As you father and her son, I can attest to her motherly love. For each year of my life, my mother has given me another reason to love and adore her. I want to share each one with you to help you understand the person she was to me and to spur long talks about what her examples mean to our lives.

• 1. Her never-ending and unconditional love.
• 2. Many of the remarkable qualities in my father, sister, brother and me are subtle gifts given to us by your grandmother over a lifetime of caring acts.
• 3. Home-made Oatmeal Cookies: sometimes burnt and sometimes cooked to perfection, but never was there a treat cooked with more love.
• 4. Private talks about our inner-most feelings over Mexican food dinners
• 5. Her amazing patience in leading by example. Although my behavior was a parental challenge, she knew that her seeds of love, respect and consistency would someday bloom.
• 6. Mom's clever way of appearing more naïve than anyone ever believed she was, in order to spare someone unnecessary embarrassment or uncomfortable confrontation.