In Memory of Sulie Fulton

(I wrote this Blog Post last Wednesday, but I haven't been anywhere with Internet access so that I could actually post it until now)

We lost a wonderful person this week. 

We celebrated the life of my beautiful mother-in-law Sulie Fulton today.  It is hard to put into words what she meant to Pancho, Me and the kids, but I will try . . .

Sulie raised Pancho from the age of 4, when she married Pancho's Dad in 1973.  Pancho had 4 brothers and sisters, so she became an instant mom to 5 kids.  A year later she had Pancho's sister Joy, so she now had 6 kids to raise!  What an amazing woman.  That can NOT have been easy! 

I will always think of her as such a giving person.  Some of my favorite memories of her, are her hilarious sense of humor, her positive attitude, and her, "go get em" spirit.  She always had a smile on her face and she lived her life by a few motto's.  One of which was "Life is short, eat dessert first".  Also, whenever we would see a sign that would say something like No Parking, she would say "They don't mean me!"  and park there anyway. . .which would always make me laugh!

For the past 4 1/2 years, Sulie has valiantly fought Cancer.  She constantly amazed and inspired me.  Sulie had such an amazing faith, that carried her through her journey with a constant positive attitude and smile on her face.  I feel so lucky to have known her, and to have been touched by her beautiful spirit. 

Thank You for being our Mom and "Castle Grandma", we will miss you so much.

Pictures of Pancho and his brothers and sisters are VERY rare, they are hardly ever all in one place, so I asked them all to pose for a picture for me today!

Pancho, Kathleen, Becky, Joy, Rob

and Dennis (kneeling in front)

We have NEVER gotten a picture of all of the Fulton cousins together, and we still haven't (Tony, age 22, is in Korea in the Air Force)  but this is pretty close!

Brian (21), Megan (15), Melissa (28), Michael (18), Dennis Jr. (22), Zack (18)

Max (11), Sofia (2), Lucy (6), Sam (9)

Pancho's Mom was buried with his Dad who she always said was

"The Love of Her Life".

the cousins had fun playing after the short ceremony at the grave site

Lucy with Aunt Becky and Aunt Kathy

Family and close friends went over to Sulie and Grandpa Joe's after the reception.  The cousins went swimming in her Koi Pond.

Max wanted me to take this picture of him jumping in!

The Koi fish were definitely hiding at this point.

Little cousin Sofia was so daring!  She is an excellent swimmer and my kids loved swimming with her.

Max has 2 tortoises at home, so he and his Grandma always had the "tortoise connection".  They could sit and talk about their love of tortoises for hours.  Max couldn't wait to visit Grandma's tortoise.

The older cousins played cards together!

Sulie was very talented.  She made beautiful baptismal gowns for my kids, she made the shoes that I got married in, she was always working on amazing craft projects.  We found these hats that she was planning for Pancho.  She was going to make these into a half Oregon, half USC hat for him!

The family enjoying Sulie and Joseph's beautiful backyard . . . we were just missing her.  She would have LOVED being there with all of us! 

We talked a lot with the kids on our long road trip about their wonderful Grandma.  They had many fun memories of her and Pancho had lots of stories about her to share with them too.  She was such a special lady and we all feel so lucky to have known her.