She Was Coming Back!!

My mom would be 91 today (March 31, 2026).

Her name was Eloise. Eloise Morton Bailey. Born March 24, 1935, in Campti, Louisiana. She died in August 2019, suddenly, during a routine procedure, and I still reach for the phone sometimes to call her.

She has something to say to you today.

After my dad died in 2017, my mom went through a hard stretch. Sixty-three years of marriage, and then he was gone. She rattled around in the house they’d built in 1972. She got lonely. She battled fear. She admitted on Facebook that she was having trouble finding the joy she once had.

But she was fighting her way back.

When she visited Elizabeth and me in Colorado in 2018, she had the time of her life. Laughing. Breathing fresh mountain air. Fully present. We saw glimpses of the old Eloise, the one who cooked for grieving families without being asked, who drove me downtown at 13 so I could slide my first sports story under the door of the local newspaper.

She was coming back. Slowly, but she was coming back.

After she passed, we spent days sorting through boxes and closets, a century of memories. And then someone found her calendar.

Turned to August 2019. The month she died.

At the top of the page, in her handwriting:

“I will smile again. I will laugh again. I will live again.”

That wasn’t a woman giving up. That was a declaration. She was in the middle of her comeback. She just didn’t get to finish it here. On August 7, she was laughing again, living again, just not the way any of us expected.

I don’t tell you this so you’ll feel sorry for her. Honestly, she’d be embarrassed by that.

I tell you this because those words are meant for you.

Maybe you’re in your own hard stretch. Maybe joy has felt just out of reach, but you’ve had glimpses. A good conversation. A moment of laughter. A morning that felt almost normal.

That’s not failure. That’s the comeback in progress.

The longing you feel isn’t a tease. It’s God's way of letting you know there's hope, there's still time.

She would have finished it. I believe that with everything in me.

And you’re going to finish yours.

Smile again. Laugh again. Live again. You have lots of runway left. The full version is still ahead of you.

She’d be cheering for you. I know it. Sieze the day, make today your masterpiece.