Gina Louise Browning Strobel
8/08/69-07/30/08
Today is her birthday.
She was born on her mom's birthday.
She has been my best friend for 27 years.
I miss her terribly, there is a hole in my heart.
This picture was taken 2 weeks before she passed away.
She had cancer for 12 years.
She beat every odd, did every procedure available and governmental trials and was the only person left living in one of her studies 5 years past anyone else.
Her very favorite cancer doctor was diagnosed with cancer and died within a month. But he was the one who got her into the National Institute of Health and those studies that prolonged her life so long.
I was there when she passed away and got the priviledge to do her hair and makeup one last time.
Her lovely and amazing family let me help with her final requests and I got to pray at her funeral.
Right after she died, her son Jack asked me the date, a calendar was right behind me. I said July 30th and he took a pen and wrote "mom gina died" on the 30th and put a heart around it. "I don't want to forget this day", he said.
We went outside for a minute as we were waiting for the funeral home and he told me to listen. He could hear his mom saying "Jack I love you!" in the wind through the trees.
She loved the "Twilight" books and couldn't wait to be well enough to read the newest release and "The Host".
She loved classical music.
She loved Hugh Grant and thought he was beautiful. He reminded her of an old friend of both of ours, Gary.
Our daughters are 10 days apart and Sidney and Sammy have been best friends since they were born.
I moved in part, to Idaho to be with her. She tried for 15 years to get me to move back.
I was there when she had Jack Charlton.
I drove 7 hours round trip to hug her and cry with her for two hours before having to return home when she received her cancer diagnosis.
She could ALWAYS make me laugh and called me Allie.
I called her Gene.
I have a card from her from EVERY Valentines Day, Christmas and birthday.
She LOVED to write letters and I am so lucky to have those now.
She was ALWAYS 1/2 hour early to EVERYTHING.
I am ALWAYS late, that drove her crazy.
When I got to do her hair that last appointment, I went 1/2 hour early in homage to her. She made me wait 45 minutes, she wasn't ready. (See, she knew how to make me laugh)
She LOVED music and all day today my hairschool girls listened to her favorites, Depeche Mode, OMD, Pet Shop Boys, Sting, The Cure, The Smiths, really anything alternative 80's.
She loved to dance.
She loved to be pampered. Getting pedicures and massages were her favorites.
She hated dissappointing anyone.
She hated losing her hair.
When she was sad she wanted to be alone. I want to be around people. We were so opposite in so many ways.
She was an original goth. Black nail polish and all. (In the 80's) And she told me only several years ago that people called me "rainbow bright" behind my back.
She loved black and she was most likely smiling on the day of her funeral with most everyone in one of her favorite colors.
She knew I loved chocolate and bought it for me although she really didn't like sweets.
For six months she lived on Coca-Cola and Goldfish crackers.
She had great taste and style in clothing and decorating.
She thought they wrote "Romey and Michelle's High School Reunion" for our 10 year reuion, reunion.
She had (not trying to offend anyone) TERRIBLE taste in guys and picked all the wrong partners for her.
She LOVED her kids MORE THAN ANYTHING. They were the only reason she fought her illness so long and hard.
Every sibling in her family thought that they were her favorite. Every friend she had thought they were her "best". What a gift!
Her best "best" friends were her parents.
She was a daddy's girl. She loved hearing her dad's voice. If he read to her or just talked about day to day things. When she was so sick he would just talk to her.
Her favorite color was purple.
She loved Gucci, Fendi and Chanel. I will forever be reminded of when I smell COCO by Chanel.
I always gave her jewelry for her birthday.
She always wanted blonde hair and blue eyes, I always wanted to look like her.
She liked to talk in different accents to make people laugh and called me "darlin" in a mix between a southern and an english accent.
Her favorite flowers were calilillies.
She loved Italian food.
She loved Europe and got to go there. She particually loved Germany and spoke German.
She knew all of my faults and loved me anyway. There are many things that only she knew about me.
We had crazy adventures when we were teenagers and grownups and wanted many more.
She loved the beach. She made her mom promise to take her kids there. I promised to take her there and we ran out of time.
Her growning up nickname was "Boo". Her oldest bother called her this until he was 21.
She adored her two sisters and looked up to her three brothers. Her oldest brother donated the stem cells for her 2nd transplant.
She was nicknamed at one time "the little black rain cloud" and she had a bumper sticker that said the same thing.
One of her favorite movies was "Nightmare Before Christmas".
OUR favorite movie was "Joe vs. the Volcano".
Our last visit, a week before she passed, I took her lunch out to her house to celebrate my birthday. We made plans to see "Mamma Mia" she was so excited. We were excited for her birthday too. She was tired and so was I, so we napped for a moment together and her mom chuckled when she found us there and asked if we were having another one of our MANY sleep overs.
She LOVED Halloween and wanted to keep the decorations up all year long. This led to her love of black cats.
Volkswagons were her favorite type of car, she LOVED her Jetta.
She loved learning and loved to read. She hated that she never finished college and was always jealous when her other friends had their degrees. She said she always wished she were smarter. She was the smartest person I knew when it came to what was really important.
Some of our happiest times were living in our apartment in Provo when we were single.
She got down, but always built others up and found the funny bright side of things. She always joked about her cancer.
She always took time for the people in her life. Even when she was sick.
On the last day she was in too much pain for us to talk. But she knew I loved her and I knew she loved me.
I could never write all of things I loved about her. All the things that I miss.
She loved making lists. She made lists of EVERYTHING. Things she liked, she didn't like. Things she wanted, things she had. Silly things, serious things she wanted her kids to know about her and wanted passed on. So I made this list about/for her, on her birthday.
