"We Love Andrea" was created to update Andrea's friends as she went through a difficult journey. After her second heart transplant when her pulse began to speed up she was given a pacemaker, then a Heart Mate II or LVAD. She was in the Stollery Children's Hospital, then the Mazankowski heart unit in Edmonton, Alberta for 7 months. However, she peacefully died on May 11, 2011 when the rest of her heart and other organs could handle the strain no longer. If you come to this blog, pray for her family and friends, remember to tell your friends you love them, then sign your organ donor card.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

More Memories Received

Thanks to all of you who have sent in more memories. Fay asks me often if I've got more and I love it when I can tell her that, yes, more have come in! Because the page is getting so long, I'm starting to put any new memories at the top so they're easier for you to see. (I'm out of people to beg for more, if you know of anyone, tell them to email them to memories.of.andrea@gmail.com. If they aren't typists or don't have email, email me and ask for my fax number or address, I don't want to publicly post them but I will share them via email.)
Oh, and I got that thing we were raising money for but Maynards are off on a trip so I haven't got it to them yet. It's even more beautiful in real life! The extra money I donated to the Ronald McDonald House Edmonton as that was Maynards' wish for any memorial donations.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Smile Train

Through losing Andrea, I've gotten to know another woman who lost a daughter about the same time Andrea died. We've emailed and texted back and forth and I got an email from her today with this message that I want to share.-

Hi... when we lost our little angel, we also lost a beautiful smile. A smile we wish we could see again. A smile we can only see in our minds. We knew we wanted to set up a memorial for our little girl.
One day over the funeral, we remembered a place that fixes children's smiles. Fixes cleft palates. The feeling was strong that we set up a memorial in honor of Lauren. In memory of beautiful smiles. So that other little children can smile too.
Thus the creation of this online fund with smile train.
You don't have to donate. It is entirely up to you. We have a goal for 13 smiles for 13 months. If you know of anyone who would like to donate, please pass this email on. The address is:
If for some reason you can't get on here, plese let us know.
Thank you in advance.
Jeffrey and Delilah Schultz

Monday, July 4, 2011

How Do You Ever Say Goodbye

(This feels a bit strange for me to do this but) last December, the 15th to be exact, when Andrea didn't die after all, I wrote this poem and I thought I could share it... Just a few notes and explanations before I begin, there is a better version of this poem, a more edited one, only it's tucked away and not to be found. This one is nearly straight out of the notebook it was written into. Little Andrea was a fun name I had for her, I had her in my contact list as Lil Andrea and when she turned sixteen, she was determined to change it. So she changed it to Andrea Froese and I took it away from her and entered it as "Andrea Little Froese". It's still like that. That last little Froese is kinda a pun-ish joke, word play if you will, little phrase/little Froese. Just jokes we had. Here goes.

How do you say goodbye to a friend?
I told her I'd love her to the end.
I know she'll be in a better place
But, oh! I will miss her dear little face!!
She's always been little Andrea to me
Or "that last little Froese" that I loved dearly
We've had hours of talking and hashing things
We talked about life, joys and sorrows it brings.
We were gonna grow old and always be close
And of all my friends, I told her the most
Of my dreams and wishes, we'd laugh and we'd cry
How do I ever say goodbye?

Dear Father in heaven, when you meet my friend
There's a little message I want to send
Tell her I love her, always will
When we're both in heaven, I'll love her still
I can't wait to see her, healthy and strong.
We'll be friends forever, eternity long.

I all at once remembered this poem the other day and it comforted me and it seemed like the right thing to do to share it. Keep praying for us all. We miss her so much.