Wonderful Samantha Moore is Gone !

I have been waiting to finally feel like I could post this on my blog. I hope Sam will be ok with it.

She was such a great friend to everybody. This is what was in the paper.

"MOORE, Samantha, 43, of Richmond, passed away March 29, 2010. She is survived by her husband, Kenneth; two sons, Tyler Eric Moore and Jeremy Howard Moore; and two daughters, Alexandra Moore and Elaine Moore. Samantha's favorite quote to her children was "Who loves you more than me?" She is also survived by her parents, Eric and Lucile Eastman; five brothers, Matthew Eastman and his wife, Kim, Alex Eastman and his wife, Sarah, Heber Eastman and his wife, Carly, Luke Eastman, and Jed Eastman and his wife, Heather; and one sister, Rach Johnson and her husband, Jeff. The family will be receiving friends between 6 and 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 1, 2010, at the Bennett Funeral Home West Chapel, 11020 W. Broad Street Road, Glen Allen, Va. The funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 2, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2500 Pump Road, Richmond 23233, followed by interment at Greenwood Memorial Gardens."

We were all so shocked and saddened to learn of her passing. I was just with her and didn't even know she was sick.

It was a beautiful viewing , funeral and graveside service. I made some scrapbook pages for my journal so I can remember it all. Many friends flew in from out of town and it was a great reunion but very sad for all of us to be gathering for this reason.

Our RS is doing a tribute book for her family. I wrote an entry. This is what it said:

" My memories of Samantha

I have had a 100 thoughts of times I spent with Sam or witnessed something great and wonderful about her. And yet it is so hard to put them all into words.

But I will try to capture a few.

Samantha was so unique. She was so smart and yet so down to earth. She was very humble and unassuming She was so dry and funny but always kind and thoughtful. That is hard to do.

One of the things that makes us love her so much is that she was involved in the details of our life. The simple things that meet basic human needs. She was always there doing the jobs that people really needed. And she was never to good or too busy to figure out what there were. Like one time when she came over just to help me figure out my phone.

She was one of those people that was just everywhere serving and doing something good in her quiet way. I would see her green car all over town and feel all was well with the world

Because she was meeting someone's needs. When they got the van, I didn't know where she was.

She was either playing the piano for everyone and everything, holding someone's baby, serving in YW and camp, or primary, playing big booty, babysitting someone's kids ( including my grandkids), making muffin heads for something, celebrating sports,texting the world and helping everyone else figure how to text, tutoring math, substituting as an institute teacher, sewing baby bibs for new babies,bearing her testimony, reading a great, great book and on and on.

Samantha made you feel like you were her best friend. She was very accepting. And let you be who you were. She has a thousand good friends because she was a good friend to everybody.

I love that she was honest. She wasn't too pollyanna but called things they way they were, You weren't afraid to share your opinion. She wouldn't judge you harshly.

She was fun and had a great sense of humor. She has a sense of humor like my husband Greg. That must be why he liked her so much . He mentioned to me on more thanone occasion that she was one of his favorite people.

Samantha is one of those people who you feel like you could call at a moments notice and she would try to find away to help you. She was always serving.

I loved having book club and journal class with her. She always brought some cool perspective to the discussion. And she would call it cool.

She always said things were neat or cool. And yet she could have used a thousand vocabulary words and have known what they meant.

Samantha loved her family. Both the family she grew up in as well as her own immediate family.She spoke lovingly of them all the time.

She told me the story of getting engaged to Kenneth and knowing she made the right decision. She was always saying something nice he did or made at the house.

Samantha had a great and valiant testimony. She knew the scriptures well and was a wonderful teacher. I could listen to her all day long. No fanfare just rich content.

I love to think of the day I met her when they moved to town. I was RS president and took banana bread to welcome her into the ward. She was pregnant and sick and wearing these funny swimming shoes. She tried to get her sister-in law ( that was helping her move) to pretend she was her. We laughed about it for years.

Samantha loved our ward more than anyone I know. She always said " we were her family" . I pray we will all be able to help her family that is left behind. We all feel a huge loss but I can't imagine the personal loss for all of them. I hope we continue to love and serve each other like Samantha did.

The thing about Samantha is that she didn't love things; she loved people, especially children. I think she is probably in heaven with the babies and kids getting them ready to come to earth.

When I think of Samantha, I love to think of this poem.

" One hundred years from now, it won't matter what kind of car she drove, what kind of house she lived in, how much money she had in her bank account, nor what her clothes looked like. But the world may be a little better because she was important in the life of a child"

I had a one on one conversation about life with her a few days ago after journal class. We talked about alot of things we all worry about..

I am glad she won't have to worry about them now but will be in heaven as an angel helping us all get through life . I know she will do all she can for her family .

I love that I have that as my last memory.

I will miss her terribly. She leaves a huge hole for everybody.

We learned so much from her and the life she lived will be an inspiration to us forever.

I love you Samantha. Until we meet again.

Suzie "

We will all miss her so much. And want to help her family however we can.

I have talked to her mom a few times over the phone these past 2 weeks and it is like talking to her.

I know we must carry on and she would want us to be happy but we miss her so much.

We will make her favorite recipe occassioanlly... she brought these to many things and we all loved them. Here is the recipe:

Muffinheads

3 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

8 slices bacon, cooked & chopped

1/4 c. mayonnaise

1/3 c. Italian cheese

1 can FLAKY grand biscuits

Peel biscuits into three layers each so you'll have 24.

Arrange in mini muffin pan. Fill. Bake at 375 for 18-20 minutes.