A YEAR WITHOUT MY MOM

Today marks one year since my mom left this Earth. April 6, 2024 will always live in my mind as if it happened yesterday. If there is one thing I will say it’s that it has been an honor to be the daughter of my mother Patty Jean Beck Semanick. This past year I have struggled with feeling like anyone new who enters my life will never truly know who I am as a person because they don’t know the version of me that existed when my mom was here. I have started to accept that I was who I was when my mom was here on this Earth and that I am who I am now without my mom here on this Earth and I am okay with that. It’s okay to not be the same person and it’s okay to allow myself to feel all the things and to stop resisting those feelings. It’s okay to grow as a person and experience growth and it’s okay to change as a person, we are human and this is life and that is what is supposed to happen! My mom did a hell of a good job at raising me to be the beautiful human that I am and I am finally content if I don’t fit into someone’s life or equation as the person that I am now without her here. There is no doubt that there is a huge hole in my heart and that it is going to take a very special person to be able to fill that void, but I am also hopeful that with time, growth, and healing that will happen and it will be electric. Like my mom, I have so much love to give and I hope to one day have someone who loves me as much as I loved her who will speak nothing but love at my funeral the way I did for my beautiful mom! As part of my healing I wanted to share the eulogy I wrote and spoke at my mom’s funeral. My mom’s funeral was intimate and private but I am ready to share with everyone all the things that made my mom such a special human being who was so loved by so many. So here it is.

11:11AM: April 9, 2024

Mom’s Eulogy

A couple of days ago I sat here in a room and was faced with the daunting task of taking the 23,000 days of life my mom lived on this Earth and condensing it into an obituary that consisted of 2 paragraphs. The truth is I could stand here for a lifetime and talk about my mom and never run out of good things to say about her. My mom was the most selfless, thoughtful, caring, resilient, strongest, most beautiful person I will ever have the pleasure of knowing in this lifetime. She was truly one of a kind. Not only did my dad hit the jackpot on a random night over 30 years ago at a bar in Calumet City, Illinois but myself and my brother and sister also won the lottery having my mom as a mom.

A couple of weeks ago when my mom was in the hospital one of her cancer doctors Maria came in and said “Patty you are one of my favorite people on this Earth” and that was the special thing about my mom… She was a lot of people’s favorite person. There are people who never even met my mom in person who have reached out to me saying just that. My mom was constantly thinking about everyone else. In some of my mom’s last days she was writing her kids Easter cards from the Easter Bunny, writing her best friend Susie a thank you card for all of her help, and writing my best friend Sean a belated birthday card to mail off to LA. If that isn’t a true testament to who my mom was as a person that I don’t know what is.

Two years ago my my mom was told she had less than two years to live and was given her death sentence over the phone… terminal colon cancer. My mom took this news and did nothing other than continue to travel, love, and live every second that she had of her life to the fullest. From staying at the Surfside Four Seasons in Miami to visiting her kids and fur babies in LA to road tripping to Palm Springs to pull that slot machine at Agua Caliente, my mom did not stop living her life for a single second.

As we all sit here today to celebrate my mom’s life, I hope and pray that everyone here can take a chapter out of my mom’s book, that I promise to publish one day, and continue to live each day to the fullest and like it’s your last! I want to conclude this eulogy by saying that in my mom’s final days I watched as she grabbed, waved, and reached for someone and something that I simply could not see. She asked for her mom, for a pineapple shake from Dairy Queen, and for an apricot stone sour from House of Pizza. There’s no denying that this woman knew what she wanted!

All jokes aside I can stand here and confidently say that there is no doubt in my mind that something very beautiful is waiting for us after our lives on this Earth. I find peace and comfort in knowing that my mom was with me when I took my very first breathe on this Earth and that I was with her holding her hand tight as she took her very last breathe on this Earth. Patty Jean Semanick you are our Queen and you will be missed by so many. We love you. Rest Easy Mom.