Missing Mom

When someone close to you passes away, they take a piece of your heart with them.

My mom passed away on June 9th 2022, it's a day I'll never forget, I still remember it like it was yesterday.

I get a call from my step-dad in the evening of the 8th telling me my mom was in the hospital and is very sick. My first reaction was to jump in my truck and haul ass up to the hospital in Cheyenne, WY (about a hundred miles away from Denver, CO.) My mom has a ruptured appendix and they did emergency surgery to remove her appendix. While the doctors were operating they found out My mom had necrotizing fasciitis, a rare as deadly bacteria also known as "flesh-eating bacteria." We have no idea how or when she got the bacteria. My step-dad told me not to bother coming up because they are going to life flight her to a level one trauma center either in Ft. Collins or in Denver. The decision to not go to Cheyenne will forever haunt me because I never got to say good bye to my mom. The life flight was ordered and the doctors told my step-dad to go home and pack for a trip to Colorado. I called my aunt and then my uncle to let them know what was going on with my mom (their baby sister.) Unknown to me at the time, My step-dad got a call from the hospital telling him he needs to get back to the hospital as quickly as possible. As the paramedics started to load my mom into the helicopter she started coding out, she was rushed back inside the hospital to receive life saving procedures. My mom passed away short;y before my step-dad got back to the hospital.

Meanwhile I'm in Denver going crazy and worrying about my mom, I was praying like I've never prayed before in my life, begging and pleading with God to heal my mother and not to take her away from all those that loved her. I was tired and waiting for my step-dad to call so he could tell me what hospital the life flight was taking my mom to so I could meet them there. I was laying on my bed all dressed and ready to go when a white glowing orb came in through my bedroom window and stopped right over me and sort of nodded to me and then flew out the other window. Right then my phone rang, I swear it sounded different somehow but I knew it was my step-dad calling with bad news. I was crying before I even answered the phone and my step-dad told my the words I never wanted to hear, my mom was dead, and I lost it. It was the morning of June 9th, 2022 at 5:28am and I would never see my mom again, I'd never feel her hugging me again, never hear her voice again, never see her smile that shined so bright again, my mom was gone forever.

During my moms funeral I was so numb. Seeing my mom lifeless in the blue (her favorite color) coffin that I picked out for her was something I just couldn't wrap my head around. God had taken away my mom and I was angry, so so angry at God. I was sad, exhausted, and so many more emotions bottled up inside that would come out later in a flood of tears. I'd glance up at the coffin, and see my mom, I wish they'd hurry up and close that damn coffin because I was about to break down right then and there in the sanctuary.

Her funeral procession was lead by the Wyoming State Highway Patrol (my step-dad work at the Highway Patrol as an IT Specialist) with the siren and lights going. She received full military burial services, flag presentation and a rifle volley of 21 rounds. She was laid to rest at Cheyenne National Cemetery.

Lola Loretta Colby (Wolfe) was born on July 23, 1947 and passed away on June 09, 2022. She had one child, a son, Timothy R Colby born on September 30,1969.

Lola L. Colby married Douglas A Wolfe on June 07, 1986 becoming Lola L. Wolfe.

Preceded in death are her mother, Pauline Colby, and her father, Lawrence Colby

Survived by her sister, Corrine Stewart, and her brother Raymond Colby. Also nieces Tonja Stewart, Jennifer Colby, Pauline Colby, and Natasha Wolfe. nephews Travis Stewart, Cole Stewart, and Nathaniel Wolfe.

My mom was an amazing person, very loving and caring, a smile that could light up a room. She had so many experiences at different jobs, a flagger, a maid, even a ranch hand, So I guess it shouldn't have been any surprise when she joined the US Navy. She was the first single woman with a child to join the Navy. She would even parachute recreationally on the weekends.

I ask all of you reading this, talk to your mother, hug your mother, tell your mother "I love you". Some of us can no longer do any of these. I would give everything to be able to see my mom just one more time. Not a day goes by that I don't think about my mom and remember what a special person she was and how lucky I am that she is my mom.

Thank you,

Timothy Colby

P.S. I LOVE YOU MOMMY

P.S.S.

This is one of my favorite pictures on my mom and me, taken in 1976. I thought I'd share it with my readers.