Very sad, disturbing and shocking news

I just heard that a friend of mine with a daughter Andy's age died. She apparently had either a heart attack or pulmonary embolism in her sleep last night. Just like that. Karen was actually my first mommy friend. We first met at a childbirth class through Inova and we bonded because everyone else seemed strange since they were taking this childbirth class only a couple of days/weeks before their estimated due dates. Later, we reconnected through the Inova mom's group. Together, we cheered our sucesses, laughed at our missteps and marveled at our kids, who are a mere 5 days apart. Karen always had a light-hearted and realistic approach to child-rearing without an ounce of pretention and competitiveness making her fun to be around. She will most certainly be missed.

Meanwhile, I'm going to work with my friends to get together pictures of Karen to put in an album for her daughter. Sadly, this is the best I could come up with. It's so strange to think we spent so much time together and have so many pictures of our kids, but we never managed to actually get in the frame. Karen had actually volunteered to take our Christmas card picture this year. In her honor, I need to make sure we still do that.