My sister, my friend Rebecca Foster

Rebecca & Landy Foster taken on January 9, 2012

Tonight I had a most incredible evening, I spent hours celebrating my niece and nephews birthday with family and friends and just enjoyed the company. When I arrived home I found my answering machine blinking, three new messages to listen to, what followed was a complete change of my evening, the first message was my Relief Society President asking me to call her back, an innocent call nothing to cause any sort of feelings, the second message will forever be imprinted on my mind as the call that I had been waiting for for a year or more, a call not unexpected but still emotional, our High Priest Group Leader called my husband to tell him that Becky had passed away and please call him to discuss service for the family, this was the call that brought reality back to the front of my life, I cried, I wasn't ready, she couldn't leave me now I had learned so much from these past years of receiving service from her in my attempt to serve her as her Visiting Teacher. I remembered that the time to act was now, I had promised her I would sing for her funeral and now I needed to be ready to make good on that promise, it was the very least I could do, and the most that I could do to help me through this whole reality. I've been thinking about this fellow sister, she has fulfilled her mission in this life, and as her very last Visiting Teacher I can only hope and pray that I accomplished some small amount of service in the calling to serve her. She had been the one to assign me to be her Visiting Teacher, it was a unique experience to start, I was a young mother unaccustomed to the responsibility I faced and she loved children and felt I would be a Visiting Teacher whom she would see on a regular basis. I'm not sure what I expected from my new assignment but what followed was an enduring experience of love and friendship, she was their for me when I didn't think the next day could be any worse because life had become so dismal, she was a listening ear when I needed to speak freely about the pain I tried so hard to contain and deprive the world of. We had come to a relationship, where I felt like part of her family, this wasn't anything new for her, she treated so many people this way, but her ability to help you feel like you were special and truly loved by her was amazing. I wanted to do whatever she said, I wanted to listen to her stories about her daughter's to hear the pain and joy she felt about them and their families. I made sure I was ready for long phone conversations, or lengthy visits because I knew she would have so much to share, and I would be able to glean so much from our conversations. I look back on those years of struggle and deep pain and realize she was with me, she was helping me to stand and walk tall through it and she never left me, other friends tired of the pain I shared so meagerly but she stayed. She taught me that at the moment we became linked through the bond of Visiting Teaching I would be forever changed because she knew, in spite of her own desire, that I would need her and would rely upon her strength. I hope and pray that as I have completed my assignment with her that I might one day have an equally beneficial relationship with another sister. I love you Rebecca Foster, thank you for assigning me to be your Visiting Teacher, and for being my friend for the last eleven years. I hope and pray that your body has found rest, and your blessed with a spirit free of all the Earthly pain you were called to endure.