Life and Death

Geneva Gail LeLaCheur
1953 ~ 2011
LAYTON, UTAH-Gail age 58 passed peacefully with her family at her side in the early morning December 12th after a 10 month courageous battle with gastric cancer. Gail was born March 21, 1953 in Dallas, TX. to Frieda Holst Wells.
She married her sweetheart, love of her life, and eternal companion Glen on April 2, 1971 in Fresno, CA. and had their marriage solemnized in the Salt Lake Temple April 11, 1975.
Gail worked as the head Coordinator for Nacel-Foreign Exchange Student Program of Utah, which she worked up to her final days placing and caring for the exchange students. A substitute teacher for special needs children and a Watkins Distributer with her husband. Her hobbies are her family, camping, traveling around the world, participating in her numerous LDS church callings, crafting, reading and coaching softball.
She is survived by her husband Glen LeLaCheur and four daughters Emilie (Paris) LeLaCheur-UT; Jolene (Oscar) Avalos-WA; Andrea (Kendrick) Som-VA.; Denice (Justin) Crossley-UT; Four grandchildren which she enjoyed every moment with them, family dog Buster and all extended family and family-friends.
She is preceded in death by her Father-Doyle Tipton; Brother-Doyle (Buster) Tipton and Daughter-Deanna LeLaCheur
Special thanks to Huntsman Cancer Institute and Advocate Hospice caring for Gail during her fight and final stay at home.
Viewing will be on Thursday December 15th at 6-8 p.m.; Funeral Service will be held Friday December 16th 2011 at 11 a.m.; both services will be at the Snowcreek Chapel-845 North 1150 East, Layton, UT.
Interment will follow after the funeral service.

Gail was a very special person in my life. When my family lived in our house in Layton, Gail lived right next door along with her husband and her four daughters. I was really little when I first started going over there, but I would go over all the time. I am pretty sure that I ate more dinners at her house than I did at mine. She was kind of like a second mother to me. Gail was diagnosed with Gastric Cancer about 10 months ago and she fought a hard battle going through chemo and radiation, and through it all she was so positive about everything; unfortunately the cancer eventually took her life early Monday morning. She passed away peacefully with her family all around her. I had the opportunity to sing for her funeral today, which was more difficult than I originally thought it would be. I've sung for more funerals than a person my age should probably sing at, but none of those were for someone that I was this close to. There came a point in time where I looked up and saw Glen and the family and I just had to look down and make sure to look at my words. I chose to sing a song from the musical Little Women, and the song I sang was Days of Plenty and in the musical it's where Marmee sings to Jo, after Beth has died, that things will be better and that she must go on with her life and make sure that no matter what she does, to always remember that Beth will be with her. I thought that that would be especially appropriate for my beloved LeLaCheur family.
Today was a very helpful day, the funeral was beautiful and words were spoken that truly embodied who Gail was. She was always a happy person and she always made sure that no matter what, you knew that you had a friend in her. She was always uplifting and she was always willing to share her talents. The funeral was obviously sad, because losing someone that dear to us is always hard, but other than the sadness there was hope and love and peace. The talks given were lovely about how wonderful Gail was in this life and also about the Plan of Salvation. I am so grateful that I have this Gospel and I know that this is not the end. Gail's body may have passed on but her spirit is still very much alive, especially with all of her family. And they will see each other again.

Another thing that has been going on and it has been so hard to not talk about, especially on my blog is that I'm Pregnant! Jon and I were planning on waiting til after we were done with school, but God apparently had other plans for us. We had our first appointment last month and on the ultrasound it was just a little dot! And then at our appointment two days ago we got another ultrasound and saw our little baby! It was so precious and it was definitely something that I needed after Gail's passing on Monday. It is so incredible to see the amount of growth that can happen in just one month. And I find it incredible that my body is creating another human being. We are going to find out the gender in January and the suspense is killing me! I want a girl so bad and Jon wants a boy so we are a house divided. Haha, but secretly, deep down I'm pretty sure he wants a girl. It was really funny on Wednesday, because I'd actually lost weight since my last appointment and the very last thing that my doctor told me was that I needed to gain weight, not lose it. And I was like, "OK!" Best doc advice ever! And one I'll definitely take to heart.

The top picture is from Last month and it was just a little dot and a heartbeat and the bottom one is the two inch little fetus in my belly! It's facing downward and you can see it's head and it's body and it's cute little arms! Next month I will be able to tell you if Baby is a boy or a girl!

Life is one of those crazy things that you always take for granted until something extreme happens to make you think otherwise. And this past little bit has been an eye opener, from Monday finding out about Gail's passing and then Wednesday to see my little baby and then to today at Gail's funeral. Life is a precious gift and we need to treasure it every day that we have it. Life is a miracle and we really need to treat it as such. I am so grateful for my life and for the opportunity that I had to come to this Earth to such an amazing family and in the Gospel. It really has made all the difference in my life and I am so grateful for the chance that I have to be married to my eternal companion and make our own family.