When I lost my step-mother, so many things ran through my mind. My thoughts in the beginning were what I remembered when I had last seen her only three days prior. My father was busy renovating their 'new' home, and she was putting things in order and fussing because she couldn't find certain things. My father had put the wrong knives in the drawer instead of the knife holder. I looked at her that day and saw her strength and her determination to arrange things the way she wanted it. To establish her special touch that she has for interior decorating and style. The house already spoke volumes of her because my father renovated according to her plans. When we look around our parents home, we will always see her and feel her presence because of what she left behind.

Thinking about her reminds me of not only her strength and self-worth, but of the love Rare and Precious Diamond she portrayed. Sometimes we felt it to be stifling and confining, but to know her love is to know she showed commitment to what and who meant most to her. I guess you couldn't get too angry at her for holding on so tight. Her encouraging words and knowing she was in your corner went a long way, especially when I didn't believe I could accomplish something or see things through. My step-mother would remind me to pray and believe God because He kept no good thing from His children.

I am reminded how I was able to call my step-mother and share many things, even the opportunities I had to come into her home and pray with her. We believed God for her health and her strength. Her faith in her God was total and committed beyond anything I can say. Even in the midst of her pain, she never forgot to encourage not only me, but others she would come in contact with. This is the love that she displayed, putting her own needs on the back burner to tend to someone else's.

Then I started reminiscing about my teen age years and how she would sit my sister and myself down and talk about life and what we were to expect. She would tell us to always have a dime on us to call if our date didn't act right. You know it had to be some time ago if a phone call was a dime. We were reminded to keep our dresses down and never let a boy put his hands in our clothes. But one day she said something that has remained with me and means so much more to me today. She told us that what we possess is like a diamond. It is rare because it is only one of us, and it is precious like a diamond. So precious is it that we possess in our person of who we are that we should be careful and sure that we do not give it away to just anybody. But we should share our diamond mutually and respectfully with the one we love whole-heartedly. Besides, we're not rich whereas precious stones are a dime a dozen. We are all we have so we must take care of ourselves and cherish ourselves.

Just like that rare and precious diamond my step-mother taught us about, that is who she was. There will never be another person like her, and I am grateful for the time she had with us. Not just rare and precious, but a diamond in the rough. A diamond in the rough because of the way she was that distinguished her from every other individual. Even her fussiness that we thought we couldn't deal with is now something that is missed oh so much. But it was her fussiness that caused us to at least make a move in the right direction.

With her passing, I tried so hard to go back and think of what I could have possibly done or said that would have made a difference between her passing from this life or staying a little while longer. You know how it is when you're not present and something tragic happens, you begin going over in your mind about things you may have wished to do or say. But a family friend who gave a tribute to my step-mother at her funeral summed it all up for us. He said my step-mother is in Heaven rejoicing with her Lord. All the shoulda, woulda, couldas we thought of, cancel them. We should, by example of the life she lived, move forward and receive all that God has for us.

My step-mother will be greatly missed, but her memory and all she has instilled in our family and acquaintances will always be a part of our lives. She will always be that rare and precious diamond.