A Tribute To Georgia

Last year I told Kate that I would put together a video of the balloon releases from around the world, and finally, one year after the 10th anniversary of her death, I got it finished.  It took me so long because every time I'd try to work on it, my emotions would resurface and I would just cry and cry.  Happy tears, sad tears, tears of longing - so I had to keep postponing it.  As I kept working on it, though, it just didn't feel good enough.  Even though it's finished, it still doesn't feel good enough.  But it is my offering to her, and to all of you - however you knew her.

I know there are some clips and photos that might not be included on this video.  If I missed, you please let me know and send me what you have.  I can always add it in later.  But Kate and I wanted to get this out TODAY, because today is Georgia's day.  And we wanted to celebrate her life, to do something special for her.

I thought it fitting to end the video with the singing of "Beautiful Savior" at her gravesite.  As you watch this, you probably will mourn somewhat again.  But the final words that were sung that night one year ago were "He makes the sorrowing spirit sing!"  How true those words are!  I hope you all feel united in love as you see remembrances of Georgia all around the world, and feel your sorrowing spirit sing!

Love to you all-

Haleigh Vance

I've Come Home

Today I had occasion to attend a reunion for some of the senior missionary couples who served in Nauvoo, many of which served during the summer of 2000 with Georgia.  After lunch, we were favored with a performance by some of the former Young Performing Missionaries from 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2009.  (I was there because my husband, a YPM from Georgia's year, performed with them.)

As a side note: most of those YPM's are now middle-aged performing missionaries, or "MAPM's" as one of them puts it!

As those YPM's performed, I sat in the audience and could feel the spirit and peace of Nauvoo washing over my soul.  I could just picture Georgia up there with them in her pink dress, with her long brown hair pulled back out of her face, and her eyes sparkling as she sang and smiled; testifying with her music and her voice of God's goodness and love.

My husband performed a song called "I've Come Home"; one of my favorite songs from the show not only because of the way Matt sings it, but because of the words.

Listening to him sing made me think of Georgia in her Heavenly Home, watching over and guiding us with her love, peace, and eternal perspective.

"I"ve come home;
Now at last I feel that I've come home.
And if home is where the heart is,
Clearly, it is here.  I am at home.

"I've come home;
Now at last I feel that I've come home;
And tho worlds away from all I've known,
I'm not alone.
I have come home."

I've been thinking this summer about how Georgia's departure created this certain space in my heart; space which, eleven years ago, I would have described as aching and sad and grieving.  But as time goes on, I'm seeing that that space is being filled with friendships and love from people whose lives she also touched.  It's like that space in my heart is reserved for a special kind of love and friendship with people like me who miss her.

I find myself drawn to people who knew her and loved her as I did.  I watch for her two siblings at choir rehearsal.  My family regularly gathers with the family of another YPM who served with her in Nauvoo.  We have switched doctors so that her brother is now our pediatrician.  Yesterday at violin group class I spent the entire time talking with her sister-in-law.  At music camp, I make it a point to check in with one of her violin-playing nieces, who I've kept tabs on for a few years now and who, though half my age, I count as one of my dear friends.  And then when her lovely mother stopped me in the hall to say hello and I love you; well, that was icing on the cake!

And I see God's great mercy in this: that He is filling that space in my heart, which I once viewed as void but now see as abundant to overflowing, with more love and more friendships than it would have otherwise had room for.

So thank you, Georgia, for giving me these beautiful people in my life.  For sending them to me to buoy me up and inspire me with rememberances and stories of you.  I only hope I do the same for them, in my own small way.  I miss you every day, but I'm not alone in feeling that way; and that is the beauty of it.  We have been brought together by love; and what better thing to have in common?

"...And my pathway is sure.
I've come home."