Anna Riley,

       This has been a hard week for your Daddy and me.  We had to say goodbye to your Nana this week. I think it is important that one day you know what happened to your Nana but more importantly who your Nana was and what she stood for.  I knew her for 3 1/2 years and when I met her she was sick but I didn't even know it at the time.  She had been sick for about 12 years.  First with colon cancer and the treatments and chemo treated that but it also damaged her bile ducts which eventually destroyed her liver.  A month after your Daddy and I got married, your Nana received her first liver translant but she was still sick so she had to have another one close to a year later.  Your Nana was sick the whole time I knew her but I wouldn't have always known it just by looking at her.  You could ask her how she was feeling and somehow she would always turn it around on how your day was going instead.  She was always "doing great"  though.  Your Nana was the type of person that could bright up any room.  She had a smile that was as big as the moon.  She made everyone feel so special and blessed.   She had such great morals and you can see that when you look at your Daddy because she instilled them in him as well.   She loved her family and that is the first thing I noticed and quickly fell in love with was how close your Daddy's family was. 
      When I was pregnant with you, she was in the hospital.  Everytime we would go to see her she would ask about you.  She used you as a motivation to get out of the hospital because she said she WOULD see you born.  Well, guess what Anna Riley?  Your Nana was such a strong person and when she set her mind to something she would do everything in her power to do it...your Nana got out of the hospital and made it to see you when you were born!   She was very strong!  You can probably mention her name at UAB hospital and the doctors will tell you that.  There were several times she shocked the doctors because they just didnt see how her body could make it...but your Nana was a fighter!   She fought as long as she could and then her body just coudlnt take it any longer and she went to be in a better place with Jesus where she wont have to suffer anymore or be in hospitals anymore.
       Yesterday we celebrated your Nana's life at her memorial and do you know almost 700 people were there?!  She was one special lady!  It was so wonderful to hear all the wonderful things that everyone said about your Nana as they came and spoke to us afterwards.  She really had touched so many lives.  She was such an inspiration to so many people.  One day when your old enough to understand you will be proud to know that you had a Nana like that! 
       I can't tell you that I wish Nana could be here to watch you grow up, because your Nana will be watching you and smiling down at you.  You will always have a very special guardian angel to watch over you!  But I do wish you would have known your Nana because she is one of the best people you could ever know she would have did so many fun things with you!  So if anyone ever tells you that you look or act like your Nana, take it as one of the highest compliments you will ever receive because she was a beautiful lady on the inside and out!  She loved you so much just the few months that she knew you!