The spring snows have taken their toll on the trees and flowers. Still it is beautiful here. It always is. Life is hard so I like to think that God made these mountains to sustain the people who live here.

This photo is for Nell who passed two days ago. She loved spring and her gardens full of blooms. It seems fitting somehow that the flowers won't be there this year.

She died in a nursing home. She had been wheelchair bound for a few years due to a stroke caused by diabetes. While still at home, her diabetes raged out of control. She was getting sores on her toes and insulin was no longer effective in lowering her glucose levels.

After the nurses had to use a ladder to get into a bedroom window every visit because she would be laying on the floor having attempted to get into her wheelchair from the bed, Adult Protective Services was called in. They determined she needed 24 hour care and she was placed into a nursing home.

I knew she wouldn't last long with the loss of her independence.

I remember her fiestiness. When I'd go out and buy lunch, she'd tell me to bring her back a man. She was in love with her doctor so a visit meant doing her hair and getting all dressed up with jewelry and make up.

One time when we went, I put a post it on her shirt that said "I love you, Doctor. Nell. xoxox" He laughed and laughed and said she had made his day.

We watched the stories every afternoon. I'll never get to say "I told you so" because I knew EJ was going to turn out to be a bad guy. I haven't been able to turn them on since she went into the nursing home but I did hear that EJ was the glove.

Toward the end, we talked of dying. She said wistfully that she just wished she could run up the hill one more time. That is how I picture her. Not passing in some anonymous hospital bed but running like a deer up a big ol hill and taking flight into that beautiful blue WV sky.