Therese Marandet

PLEASE LEAVE A KIND MESSAGE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE TO HONOR MY MOTHER.

TO SEE PHOTOS OF HER AT MISC STAGES OF HER LIFE, CLICK ON "MEMENTOS" LINK AT TOP.

Saying that my mother, Therese Marandet (born Kesrouani), was an extraordinary woman would be an understatement. She was beautiful, intelligent, gifted, selfless, loving, wise. She always put others needs before her own. She taught me to be considerate, resourceful, loving, loyal, compassionate. I would not be who I am today if it wasn't for her. I was blessed to have such an amazing person as my mother. She was my best friend, biggest supporter, wisest adviser and her ability to fortell the future came in handy more than once to guide me. She was caring, nurturing, encouraging me to pursue my dreams, even if it meant going to America and being far from her. I know it broke her heart the day I immigrated to the USA, but she encouraged me anyway. She was an avant guarde lady, the first woman to drive a car and wear pants in her country, Lebanon. She loved gardening and plants thrived in her care. She also was fascinated by humming birds. She loved God and the Virgin Mary, to whom she would cut roses from her garden everyday and pray to constantly. She used to say that Heaven is tired of her relentless requests to protect her children, to help them etc etc . We used to tease her about all the candles she would light to our intention, and tell her she was going to start a fire one day! Yes my mother loved God and God loved her too.

She was blessed with good health all her life, eating healthy and favoring nature's remedies over pharmaceuticals. She lived a long life, and was amazingly young looking for a 94 year old. At 93, she was still gardening and hand watering the building's front yard. we all thought she would live to see 100 years of age, so when I found out in February of 2021 that she had terminal cancer, it felt like my whole world was crumbling down all around me. I grabbed on with all my might to my center pillar, the Most High God, my creator. he helped me through these turbulent waters I had to navigate, and I surely would have drowned if it weren't for all the signs he gave me during the five long months my mother fought cancer. Yes, the doctors all said she only had a couple weeks to live, but she wasn't ready to leave us yet and courageously proved them all wrong by living another 5 months. We had time to say our goodbye and express all our love and that was a true blessing.

The day my mother died, God did something amazing to prepare me. I was sound alseep when a violent gust of wind blew the bedroom window blind open and woke me right up. I was on location at an airfield filming a documentary at the time. My motorhome started shaking violently, so much so that I thought it was an earthquake. I got up and looked outside and saw the trees around me swaying and twisting in the strong wind gusts. So I was forced to go outside to gather some of my outdoors belongings before they flew away. But suddenly all wind stopped. It was so violent and so brief, I was puzzled. Very unusual wind pattern. What was going on? And that is when I saw it. Because the wind woke me up and the storm drew me outside at 6AM, I saw "it". It was the most amazing sunrise I have EVER seen in my life. It was as though God had said "WAKE UP, COME OUT AND SEE WHAT I WANT TO SHOW YOU". Rain was falling in the distance right in front of the rising sun, creating a bright red curtain on the horizon. It was striking looking. The clouds were very dark with snow white outlines, and there was this gorgeous opening in the center, where you could see deep into the heaven, a gorgeous blue sky. It was so magestic I stood completely still, there, for 20 minutes, watching the sun rise. It took my breath away. And that is when I heard a voice inside my heart that said "She is going to be OK. She is going to see unimaginable beauty. She will be exalted". I suddenly felt a deep feeling of Peace and Understanding come upon me. 

Later that night the phone rang. My sister was crying and said: "It is done. Mom just passed away. She had a smile on her face". And thanks to a beautiful sign from God, so could I, despite the tears streaming down my face.