Help me make sense of this!

The following obituary is of a woman with whom my daughter was friends with from Grade School through the tender teen age years, did all the Grade School spending the nights together at our house, of talking and giggling all night instead of sleeping, later learning how to put on make up together while getting powder and lip stick all over everything, helping each other with the "in style hair do's" almost suffocating themselves with hair spray and perfumes,  then through the adult business of selecting a life time mate and having their babies about the same time enabling them to decide together which was the best diapers and baby wipes to use and Braggers Rights when one's baby cut the first tooth, sat up alone, crawled, took the first few stumbling baby steps.
And suddenly she is gone. Dead. No warning for those remaining behind. No time to prepare her two children, ages ten and twelve. No time to prepare her parents, to prepare any of us.  Just woke up one morning with a rash on her forehead and dead the next morning. Staff infection.
Wendy was 35 years old. Her youth did not protect her, did not keep her alive. My daughter is 34 years old. I look at my daughter through new eyes and realize her life is as fragile as Wendy's, as mine, as yours. And it scares me. Vomit rises up in my throat when I allow myself to fully understand I could also one day have to face life without my daughter.
How does a parent cope with the loss of a child, a child of any age? My daughter is 34 years old and she is still my baby, my child.
Wendy will spend her first night in her grave, her final resting place, tonight. In the City Of The Dead.
I am not handling this very well at all. It leads me to the question: How is her mother, her father, dealing with it? My heart, sympathy and prayers are with them.



Wendy Hedges

Mrs. Wendy Hedges, 35, of Lake City went home to be with the Lord unexpectedly Sunday, morning, March 14, at Shands of Lake Shore. Hospital She was born in Live Oak, but lived most of her life in Lake City. Wendy was a fun loving, caring person who loved her family and kids unconditionally. She was a friend to all and a stranger to no one. She will be missed deeply by everyone, but she now joins her grandmother, grandfathers and precious child in heaven.
Wendy is survived by her husband, Jeff Hedges, Lake City, two adorable children, Cody and AbreAnna, loving parents, James and Debbie Daugherty, loving sister Misty (Shone) Nash, special nieces, Candice and Alexis, a very special Uncle Bobby, Aunt B and Uncle Virgil. Wendy also leaves a host of aunts, uncles, cousins and wonderful friends.
Funeral services for Wendy will be held, Wednesday March 17, 2010 at 1:00 P.M. at Gateway-Forest Lawn Funeral Home Chapel with Pastor Derrick Burrus and Pastor Mark Cunningham officiating. Interment will follow at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens Cemetery. Visitation with the family will be held from 5-7 P.M. Tuesday evening at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, donations can be to Cody & AbreAnna Hedges, c/o of Heritage Bank of the South, P.O. Box 50728, Albany, GA 31703. Gateway-Forest Lawn Funeral Home 3596 U.S. Hwy 441 S., Lake City, Florida 32025 (386) 752-1954 are in charge of arrangements.
Please sign guestbook at
www.gatewayforestlawn.com Published in Lake City Reporter on March 16, 2010