Cindi Lou Engle
Born on Earth - June 25, 1958 Reborn in Heaven - February 27, 1999
My mom was a beautiful person.
She never knew how to be selfish.
I know this first from how she carried me for 11
months in her belly even though she was hugely pregnant!
She stayed at home with me and my younger brother
until we started school. Then, she went back to work
and continued to work very hard for the next 10 years
to help provide for us, and give us all we could need.
She was a young mom, having her two children at the age
of 18 and 22. She always wanted to be young enough to
enjoy her kids and her life with Dad.
She was the youngest of four children, born in 1958.
She got married to my dad in 1975 at the age of 17 (Dad, 21).
I was born 53 weeks later! My brother was born four and a half
years later! Our perfect family...one boy, one girl.
Mom was a fun mom. She would get dressed in her bathing
suit too, and we'd all go out and play in the kiddy pool or sprinkler!
She let me help cook and clean with her. She let me help take care
of my little brother who I simply adored till he was about four!!
*giggles* I remember cleaning house when I was about 10 or so and
Mom jammin' to Tina Turner, Cindy Lauper and Madonna!!
Mom was so cool! : )
Mom and I would go shopping, check out guys and talk.
We would just sit and talk for hours! She cried with pride
when I graduated high school. She cried with hesitation when I went
to college and she cried with happiness when I got married.
She was my best friend. We were SO alike when it came to our personalities. We used to "butt heads" sometimes because we were
both stubborn and "always right". Mom and I convinced Dad to let
me date at 16 rather than 40 like Dad had said! : ) Mom always
wanted us to be open with her. She would rather know what's up than for
us to hurt ourselves. Mom knew things that Dad didn't know because she
was more accepting. Mom had been there, done that, so she could relate
to us being teenagers better than Dad could. Mom wasn't afraid of anything.
I remember when we lived on the farm and she killed a snake that the men who were there siding our house were afraid of!! : )
Mom loved to read. She could read a romance novel in a few hours!
Whenever I read a book in school, I had Mom read it too. She would help
me if I didn't understand something. I guess I didn't take after Mom
there, because I had reading comprehension problems! So, Mom got to read
some cool books that way! We did that even into college! She was so
cool! Mom loved to play cards. Before I was born, Mom, Dad, my aunt
and uncle used to play cards all night until the early morning hours...
3 or 4am! It was guys against girls! They continued this up until her death!
My brother and I got to play with Mom and Dad when we got older. It got to where
I would come home from college on the weekends and we'd all four play
cards all weekend! : )
She loved red roses. Dad got her a dozen a year: 3 for each holiday...
Valentines Day, Mother's Day, her birthday, and their anniversary.
As a matter of fact, the thing she left me after she died was her favorite
portrait...a single red rose.
Mom got diagnosed with brain cancer in May 98 when an X-ray showed a
tennis ball sized tumor in her head. It was removed and later found the
primary cancer was lung where a walnut sized tumor was found.
Chemotherapy and radiation shrunk the lung tumor. By August, she was
feeling better. But a check up in December ...six months after May's
findings...it was discovered that her lung tumor had grown again and the
cancer had spread to her liver and was in her bones, too. She was given
six months. She got worse from there. She WAS able to fly out here to
Arizona from Indiana with Dad and my brother, Levi, to spend our one and
only Christmas as an entire family since I got married in June!! It was
our only holiday. They flew out of here on December 27th, and two months
later to the day, she died...February 27th.
Everyone that knew Mom, loved her. She was a strong woman. She had
endured much pain in her life and I'm glad to know she's in a good place
where she will never hurt, or be hurt, again. I feel special to be the
daughter of an angel. I am sad when I think of all the things to come
that she will miss. But I guess she won't. She'll finally be able to be
with me ALL the time and never have to work again. I will forever miss
her. Miss all we were supposed to do together. All the marriage and
parent/baby (once we have one) advice I never got. She will never get
to hold her grandbabies. How sad for them and all of us. She's with
the Lord whom she accepted while out here in Arizona! God keep her safe.
You've got a great lady up there with ya!
I love you, Mom!
LouAnna
Reborn in Heaven - February 27, 1999
