Danelle’s Journal

I pulled into my sister’s driveway and sat in the car, gathering my courage. I hadn’t been inside since the day of Danelle’s funeral, two weeks earlier. Her husband, Dave, had invited me to come help him go through her things, especially clothes and personal items.

Was I ready for this? Danelle and I had been close. She was four years younger than me. As a child, she followed me around and wrote notes telling me how much she loved me and looked up to me.

Grown up, we lived an hour and a half away from each other and bonded over marriage, kids, work, faith and the horses that we both loved to ride.

Danelle had beaten ovarian cancer five years earlier. We’d called it a miracle. We assumed God would be there for her again when she was diagnosed with mouth cancer in 2019.

There was no second miracle. The cancer was painful, disfiguring and unstoppable. We prayed, rallied our friends and our church, even flew Danelle to