Birth date: Jul 6, 1941 Death date: Apr 28, 2023
Dear Mom, You came into this world on July 6, 1941, born to Lillian and a man with the last name of Bowlby. While you never knew your biological father, you, your brother Larry, and your sisters Linda and Jody were raised in Tuls Read Obituary
Lana was always so kind to keep up with my grandmother (her Aunt-in-Law), Mary Ellen Smith. I grew up hearing lots of fun Allston family stories from Grandma Smith! I know Lana will be deeply missed. I’m praying for you all to experience sweet memories on ordinary days and a deep sense of peace on the difficult days.
Much Love,
Lori Myers Berry
Dear Mom,
We just want to say THANK YOU!
Thank you for loving Dad. Thank you for marrying Dad. Thank you for wanting and loving us before you had even met Dad.
Thank you for always meeting our close friends’ parents. Thank you for making sure we were always safe. Thank you for always making sure we had fun. Thank you for all the times you gave our friends a ride home from school. Thank you for coaching Dave’s soccer team that one hilarious season.
Thank you for all the late nights … talking late into the night to heal broken hearts after break-ups and other of life’s disappointments. Thank you for staying up all night typing our papers for school that had all those lovely foot notes that you had to use a ruler to measure to ensure you saved enough room at the bottom of the page.
Thank you for allowing us to make our own decisions about our Faith journeys. Thank you for coming to Sherman in February to witness Alana’s Baptism. Thank you for spending time with her Sherman “adoptive” church family and getting to know them like they were your family.
Thank you for worrying about Alana so much that you would stay up late when she was on duty as an RA and wait for her call when she got back to her room each night after her rounds.
Thank you for being our mom, the best mom two kids could ever want. Alana remembers waking up from her naps when she was in pre-school and crawling into your lap in your gold chair and sitting there and watching television with you. It may or may not have been “Days of Our Lives”.
Thank you also for being our best friend. Even at a time when teenage girls and their moms don’t get along, you and Alana always did. Yes, we would argue, but we always ended up laughing within just a few minutes. We could never stay angry.
Mom, you have always been there for us. And I suspect you always will be, just in a different way.
Thank you for teaching us how to love … love you, love Dad, love each other, love our family and mostly, love our kids. Thank you for teaching us how to be the best parents we could be. We learned so much from you … how to give love, acceptance, tolerance. You taught us that it is our differences that make us special.
Thank you for teaching us how to show grace, even in the face of so much pain, sadness, and fear. Thank you for showing us how to be strong, even when we are afraid. You showed grace and strength and love every minute of every day, right up until your last day on this earth.
The night before you left this earth, you said to Alana “I will love you forever, even after I die”. Mom, we will love you forever too. We know that we will feel your love for the rest of our lives …. and beyond.
Mom, thank you so much for loving us with your every cell. You will live in our hearts for the rest of our lives. Mom, as your love for us will never end, our love for you will never end. Love never ends.
Mom, we are so thankful that you are no longer hurting, you are no longer scared, you are no longer sad. We are thankful that you can again do all those things that you could no longer do on this earth.
Mom, thank you for all these things and so much more. Thank you always.
Mom, we will always love you.
Alana and Dave
Lois Myers lit a candle in memory of Lana Allston
