#2,699 Holly. 

The last time I saw my friend Holly, she had just finished writing the names of all my family on sycamore and oak leaves for a Thanksgiving dinner last November. I came to pick them up, and walked right into her kitchen–the way she always told me to do. Her home is like a Nancy Meyers film set and the welcome she and Chris give their guests makes you feel like family. She brought me fresh baked baguettes for Christmas once, and it made the best toast I’ve ever eaten. She was a stunningly confident, plucky, lovely woman and one of my biggest career role models. She was different from the rest of the world. She had a gift that was so natural and so easy and so extravagant and so simple–a master of her craft, an artist and an inspirer. She went to be with Jesus this week and today we celebrated her. After Thanksgiving, I left those leaves here on the chair in my entry, meaning to put them in shadow boxes.

Walking in the door from the church it made me smile to find her here waiting for us. I’m so proud to have known her and I’m praying that the light of God’s love will fill up the dark corners of her absence for her family.