Losing a Dear Friend

It has been a difficult week.  My dear friend, Pattie passed away in the middle of last week.  Pattie was a wonderful friend, a pioneer in the digital scrapbooking world, a fabulous designer and I was fortunate to teach alongside her at Creative Passion.  Pattie's sudden death has been another reminder of how precious life is and how we are so truly blessed to be on this journey called life surrounded by people that we love.

I couldn't possibly say enough wonderful comments about Pattie.  The Designer Digitals gallery and forum are filled with messages from people around the world that Pattie touched in so many ways.  Each of the team members at Designer Digitals created a page for Pattie that will be put in an album and given to her family.  Here is the page that I created for my dear friend.

If you would like to read my journaling, you can find it here.

Pattie was a pioneer in the digital scrapbooking world.  She shared her passion for life, family, memory keeping and Photoshop with people ALL around the world.  I feel so blessed that Pattie and I were such good friends.  She was an inspiration to me on all levels of my life....from teaching to parenting and everything in between.  Pattie had such a wonderful presence about her.  She made each and every person that she encountered feel so incredibly special and her wit was second to none.  She had the most amazing sense of humor and constantly left me in stitches.

Pattie recently taught at Masterful Scrapbook Designs and Debbie made her interview available to everybody.  If you haven't had the privilege of meeting Pattie before, you will fall in love with her immediately.  You can find the interview here.

One night Pattie and I were flipping between each other's computers working in Photoshop.  She said "this is like dueling Photoshop....I think people might enjoy seeing all of these little tips".  She came up with the idea, I came up with the name and "Digital U" was born.  Each month Pattie, Amy Kingsford and myself would have a free webinar in which we shared digital tips and our passion for memory keeping.  Each month I looked forward to these sessions.  These girls are so much fun to hangout with.  Tami has all of the Digital U's recorded and you can access all of them here just by registering.  I never want to listen to myself on a recording but I am so grateful that these sessions were recorded and I can revisit these moments with Pattie over and over.

We had some team members who were able to make the journey to Pattie's memorial service and I felt so comforted by the images and descriptions that they shared with us.  Pattie's life on earth was way too short but her kind and loving personality touched so many people during her years here.  First of all Pattie was a computer technologist in an elementary school.  She loved those little children like they were her own.  At her service, the kids had all made flowers with messages for Pattie that lined the walls.  Steph, a team member shared one image that left me in tears from a little boy named Zachary which included his picture in a heart.  It read "Dear Mrs. Knox, I hope you have a nice time in heaven.  Zachary."  Pattie would love this.

If you had any conversations with Pattie you would know that her beautiful family were her world.  You could just hear the love and the pride in her voice any time that they were mentioned.  She recently became a grandmother for the first time to twins and was so in love and happy to have them in her life.

Years ago her love for her family brought her to scrapbooking....a journey that started quite simple but through this journey she touched so many people from around the world with her fun-loving personality and ability to connect and inspire others.  Our team members that attended Pattie's memorial service shared that there were LOTS of scrapbooks there.  Scrapbooks filled with wonderful memories that Pattie had enjoyed.  As people went through these albums, there was laughter...there were tears....there were memories coming back to life.  Pattie left a legacy for her family filled with her voice and her memories.  What an incredible gift that is and once again reinforces how important it is to document life.  Pattie's voice can be heard in the words that she writes and the pictures that accompany them.  I know that Pattie's family will treasure these pages always.

Last week I was in total shock and sadness.  I keep focusing on the fact that I was so blessed to have had the opportunity to get to know Pattie so well.  She inspired me on all levels of my life.  I know I am not the only one.  She inspired people from all over the world and touched so many.  Thank you Pattie for sharing your love of life with each of us.  You will be greatly missed by all of us who know and love you!