The Fontana Files

Friday, December 19, 2008

Frederico es Cinquenta!

Translated...Frederick is 50! And what a celebration he had, globe trotting to celebrate with friends and family!

Here we are in Isla Mujeres, Mexico in November out for an adults-only dinner! From left to right: Don and Shelli Larson (relatively new friends from Gab's school), Rick and Cindy Platt, friends for 15 years and our children's Godparents, Shelly and Larry Beckham, friends from our small group at church, me and Fred, and Mark and Katryn Overaker. Mark is a childhood friend of Fred's and a current client of Dixie Freight Solutions.

The whole bunch of us smiling 'cuz we're on a beautiful carribean island!

Aren't we cute in our matching "Frederico es cinquenta" T-shirts?

In December we traveled to see Fred's sister Susan in Denver. His other sister Cathy and his parents were able to join us. Jonathan is missing from this photo as well as Elyse and Alex, Fred's nieces who are away at college.

While in Denver, Fred has yet another birthday dinner with family, cousins and family friends!

Finally! December 16th rolls around and the celebration is at home in Houston. Jonathan's future step-daughters are anxiously awaiting cake.

Fred's holding his birthday gift from me...a photo book of all of our trips to Isla Mujeres.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

My Sis

My big sis, Sara Lynette Dager, is resting comfortably in Heaven since the morning of Friday, November 28, 2008.

She fought a 4 year battle with amyloidosis, a rare disease that results from the abnormal deposition of a particular protein in various tissues of the body. Lynette's amyloidosis was in her heart and in 2004 she underwent a heart transplant. The disease was in remission for a while, but slowly it came back, causing a multitude of other problems in her body. She never gave up fighting and had such strong faith God would take care of her.

She had been in the hospital since July of this year. To know my sister is to know someone who always liked to be on the go. It was not easy for her to be away from her life at her lake house in Emory, TX. My sis was a talented painter and for many years she owned a business called "Treasures of the Heart". She designed, painted and marketed crafts similar to what you'd find in Old Town Spring near where I live.

Whenever our family was all together, (made difficult by the miles between our homes), the girls would shop and hit the casinos to play the slots! We traded clothes, shoes, purses and books we no longer used or needed and would lay on the bed or sit around the kitchen table talking about nothing in particular.

She was quite a bit older than me...so much so that she was married and had a baby 9 months BEFORE I was born! I truly was her baby sister and that's how she always introduced me.

Her goal was to make it out of the hospital and get home for Thanksgiving. This year, "Home" didn't mean Haughton, Louisiana... it meant Heaven. And that's the best place to be.

I love you sis and we all will miss you terribly.