Heroes all around us...

Every child grows up with heroes.  A super hero does extraordinary things in the face of incredible odds. Children learn that they can do hard things, to not give up, and to become someone of worth.  A super hero makes a difference in peoples lives.

Madie had her super heroes...
         It started out with her family.  
               The whole family was there at her birth to greet her.

  It had been 5 years since Taylor was born, so she easily became the long awaited princess to the whole family.  Her older siblings would protect and defend the beautiful new arrival at any and all costs. She was their princess, Madeline Rose... Each of her older siblings was a super hero in her eyes....

FAVORITE MEMORIES...

 "I was babysitting Madie when she was about six months old, before the house was remodeled, and she was fussy and wanted her mom or dad or someone other than her 12 year-old brother. But I was the only one there, so I tried talking to her,  rocking her, all kinds of things.  Finally while I was walking around with her, I started singing to her a couple of songs, and she got a bit less fussy.  I sang her name to her over and over in a melody that I had never heard and have never been able to recreate since.  It wasn't anything earth-shattering, but it calmed her down and she fell asleep on my shoulder.  I felt great love for that little angel and was happy to have helped her. (Ryan)

During my Christmas 2009 visit, I took Madie to Sonic (either before or after a musical rehearsal) for diet cherry limeades, Tatar tots and a check-in about her New York trip goals.  We chatted for a while about how she was doing, and I told her "You know, I'm here for you.  Call me if you ever need anything, even if it's just to talk," and she smiled, nodded her head and replied, "You know, I'm here for you too."  It was the first time I realized she didn't want or expect our relationship to be all about her, and I remember being so excited that our relationship was beginning to mature. (Rachelle)

I always looked forward to the holidays when Rachelle and I would both be in Houston, and we would steal the girls away to the forbidden Starbucks and get the girls fabulously overpriced hot chocolate.  The last time we stole Madie we took her to a Taco Cabana at some awful hour and talked about Sawyer and going on a trip with Rachelle.  I remember one Christmas I took her to Abercrombie to shop for clothes, and I couldn't believe that my little sister was growing up and milling about a store filled with perfume,. I also couldn't believe someone in my family was aware of name brand clothing before they moved out.  I miss her laugh the most.  of all of the kids in our family I felt like her and I shared the most similar brand of humor.  always laughing at inappropriate things!  (Sterling)

Madie and I went to Los Cucos and Bear Lake with some friends the weekend of my birthday, and close to midnight, my friends started the usual "what you like most about the birthday person". Madie had just met most of these people, but did the best that I had ever seen her do at relaxing and having fun with strangers.  She went last and was in tears before she even started.  She talked about how fun it was to spend a lot of time with me over the summer since we hadn't spent much time together since before my mission.  She said she loved listening to everyones responses (which were all very generous) and said that everyones comments were a combination of the best attributes of everyone else in our family and that  she couldn't be prouder of who I was and that I was her brother.  By that point we were both crying and she came over and sat by me and we held each other for what could have been forever.  (Taylor)

 She idolized them and knew she had the coolest older siblings ever!

I regress... 
Around the age of 1 1/2, Madie came to have an obsession with Dumbo.  She wanted to watch it repeatedly all day everyday much to the disdain of her older siblings.  I think Dumbo instilled in her at a very young age that regardless of her obstacles, she could pick herself up and work really hard sometimes doing the impossible. Dumbo taught her to love others regardless of their differences...

Her "twin" MarShae arrived into the family as quickly as she could, changing "the princess" status to the "little girls".  This took a little adjusting for princess Madeline Rose, who soon had her name shortened to Madie. She had a love hate relationship with this new arrival, she knew she had been dethroned, and as a frustrated  little princess would kiss her new baby sister, than decide to bite her.  Even so with all the older siblings off to school they soon became inseparable. They were each others hero's.

Here is a facebook post by MarShae right after Madie died.

 I don't know what I did to deserve such a perfect, beautiful sister. The 16 years I got to spend with Madie are priceless.

Madeline Morris as a kid: (I know this post seems long, but too me it barely scratches the surface)
Before I was born, Madie was OBSESSED with "Ring around the Rosies" She loved the part that goes "Ashes, ashes! we all fall down!" So Madie wanted to name me "Ashes Ashes!" so My parents gave me the middle name "Ashley".  I always loved that story of how Madie helped name me! :)
She was such a shy little kid!  She ALWAYS sucked her thumb till she was like 6 !           
   I remember when I was about 3 and she said to me "I'm gonna knock over this lamp and go tell mom that you did it!" and then she did exactly what she said she would do and I was put in time out for "braking the lamp" haha!  Madie always said she was jealous of me as a child- I don't know why. 
We used to play Barbies together until she decided she was too old for it, and I of course insisted that I was too old for it then too! I always tried to be like Madie. If she didn't like dinner- I didn't like dinner (she hated pasta salad).  If she liked a song- I liked that song. Whenever I would say little sayings she would say "hey, you got that from me!"  but I always insisted that I had come up with that phrase on my own.
I remember "Say My Name" was our JAM!!  We were little kids making up dance moves to it and everything!  She LOVED "Aladdin"- it was probably her favorite Disney movie. She used to draw Jasmine all the time when she was in like 6th grade.  At one point, Madie wanted to draw ALL the Disney princesses in her sketchbook , which gave Madie and I an excuse to watch all the princess movies within like 3 days!
One night when Madie and I shared a room, we couldn't fall asleep so we just quoted the ENTIRE movie of "The Emperor's New Groove"! I mean, EVERY SINGLE WORD!! She claims that we also had Shrek memorized, but I don't remember that! I remember a long time ago making a list of the movies we wanted to see soo bad, and they were like "Pirates of the Carribean" and "Finding Nemo"  
The candy bar game was Madie's favorite!  Of course, cause it involved speed and chocolate- two of Madie's favorites.  I think Madie prefered the "Tasha Willis" version of the game, cause you get to eat more candy! and you can trade for other people's candy. She also loved Boggle, we're talkin' LOVED it!  We used to stay up late and play it in her room, but when we shook up the game she would surround it in pillows to muffle the sound. Settlers of Catan was another game that we played literally every night one summer! Madie didn't like Monopoly and always gave up halfway through cause she knew that Taylor was just gonna win anyway haha! Madie LOVED "hot lava tag"- where you jump around on pillows on the floor and you can't touch the ground cause it would burn you. Madie and I also play this game called like "Tiger and Princess" or something and we would take turns being the Princess (who would run on the couches) and the tiger (who would chase the princess)...the game had no point, it was just fun :) we also used to balance beam along the top of the downstairs couches...mom wasn't a big fan of that! 
Madie and I LOVED to sleep on the floor of Rachelle Morris's room as kids!  Rachelle's fan was so powerful that Madie and I would pretend that we were in a snow storm and we had to save each other from the strong winds! Then when we actually fell asleep, we would wake up freezing in the middle of the night and search for whatever we could to keep us warm...mostly just clothes and towels that Rachelle had left on the floor. 
For Madie's 6th birthday, she got these candies and she told me that I couldn't have any...but I thought I would sneak one when she wasn't looking. So I ate one! Turns out that the "candies" were actually little tablets that you put in the bathtub to make the water change colors! needless to say...I threw up!  Madie pretended to be mad about it whenever someone brought up that story, but she told me just like a year ago that she was glad I ate one- so that she learned NOT to eat them!
I don't know if any of these little stories make sense, but this was very therapeutic, so whatever haha!

And now time for some random Madie facts.... also by MarShae
She hated her teeth until she was like 16
She never finished an entire series of books
She kept 2 "Izzie" sodas in her room, but whenever she wanted an Izzie she would go all the way downstairs to get one
The Izzies are still under her desk
Harry Styles was her favorite member of 1D
She loved card games- we used to spend hours playing one round of "war"
She bit her nails...a lot
She never felt smart, so she studied FOREVER
She loved Lord of The Rings
She cried every night the semester of 6th grade because she was so stressed
She always picked at her hair
She hated having things over her face, especially when Taylor Morris would sit on it hahaha
Apples were her FAVORITE
She loved to dance, she would blare the radio in her room and watch herself dance in the mirror, that's how she got so good
She loved "America's Next Top Model"
Rose (her middle name) is her favorite flower, especially red
She loved nuts, almonds, pistachios, you name it
Choir was her favorite class
She loved watching movies- especially comedy, and romance (the type that make you cry like The Notebook)
She sang constantly
Los Cucos was her favorite restaurant 

Her favorite store was Anthropologie,

Her last Christmas was her favorite Christmas

She loved getting dressed up for dances, photo shoots, homecoming week, etc. 
               Sawyer was her "super hero" on steroids! 

                       He treated her like a queen!

She accidentally bit her lip a lot when she ate, probably because she ate with her mouth open a lot (I got on her case about that haha)
To her it didn't really matter where she was going, what mattered was the music in the car on the way there 
She loved British singers 
She loved clothes
We used to act out movies while we watched them (we tried doing that kick thing at the end of "Be a Man" in Mulan OVER and over)
Her favorite show was So You Think You Can Dance
She loved mowing the neighbor's lawn (they pay really well)
Having a line in "Once Upon a Mattress" was a HUGE deal to her ("The Queen!!")
She was so scarred of Wookies (like from Star Wars) coz one time she had a nightmare that they were chasing her in a forest
She LOVED sleep- when Marielle, Madie, and I all shared a room, she would get soo mad at Marielle and I for talking-"SHUT UP!! I was ABOUT TO FALL ASLEEP" 
She used to make Marielle mad just because Madie thought it was funny
Pretty sure Madie has a scar from Marielle biting her one time
She talked to Sawyer like EVERYDAY while she was at college

(She knew what it felt like to be respected, honored and loved)

She told me that she thinks drowning, or dieing slowly would be the worst way to die- She told me that she wanted to die in her sleep- She got both her wishes

She was a firm believer in  
"It doesn't matter how many years are in your life,
                     but how much life is in your years"

She loves God and her Savior, Jesus Christ. She loves her family.

 MarShae's favorite memory....Her last night  in Houston, Madie had to clean her room, but there was so much dust that she kept having to blow her nose.  So I walk into her room and she has a training bra wrapped around her face as a dust mask. I grabbed my camera and took pics of her while she protested "Stop it, MarShae"
  It was soo funny!  (MarShae)

How I miss this dynamic duo; their singing all the time together, sharing sister secrets, the twin telepathy that always surprised me. 

Marielle was the first baby born that Madie could help take care of and she loved being the older sister!  The three little girls shared a room  for a few years. Madie learned about mothering from Marielle. She learned patience...

I was able to attend Madie's 16th birthday party and it was the funnest party I had ever been to.  I felt special and included in the dance party and games.  (Marielle)

Madie grew to have other super hero's.  So many people she admired and wanted to glean from them qualities that she wanted to work on. 


Her sister in law's Klara and Kathy became dear to her heart. They loved and included her and made her feel grown up.

One summer day Madeline, MarShae and I went blueberry picking at a small farm and I taught them how to make my homemade bread recipe.  They did such a great job making the bread it tasted like heaven in bread form.  Then we ate lots of it w/ homemade jam. (Klara)

 




My favorite memories with Madie are when we would all sit around the kitchen table at the Morris house.  I see her sitting there, with that big gray sweatshirt on, eating an apple and laughing at all the side comments sterling and I made.  Most people don't catch all the jokes, but Madie listened and she laughed.  So we could play all of the inside jokes over and over, making them grow more hilarious each time.  (Kathy)

Madie's first "Super Hero" would have been her father. She knew he could fix anything and everything. He drove her to early morning seminary for 4 years. He studied with her, typed out notes for her...He could always be  counted on!

I remember trying to teach her how to start the lawn mower.  She couldn’t pull the cord hard enough to get the old second hand Snapper 6.5 engine to turn over.  I tried showing her different ways to pull the cord.  I even had her put one leg on the handle cross bar and have her push with her leg, as she simultaneously pulled the cord, in the hopes that the combination of opposing forces could do the trick.  It almost worked, but I ended up starting it for her.  Then one day when I got home, Madie had finished mowing the Herman’s yard.  I asked, “Who started the mower?”  and Madie, while eating a big apple, said, “I did,” and smiled.  I was so excited and she knew I realized my little girl wasn’t as little as she used to be. (Dad)

One of her last super hero's was Elaine Dalton, the general  Young Women's President.

 She often talked about her and how she was her role model.  She loved that she was a runner and would remark after listening to her speak "I'm going to grow up and be just like her, and I am going to run  half marathons."  She set the goal, wrote encouraging signs all over her BYU dorm, and committed with her big sister Rachelle to run her first half marathon in Washington D.C. last March.  This commitment was made the week before she died.  Madie's love of running and quality of being kind to everyone inspired  her sister Rachelle who  founded Rose Runners . 

   Madeline Rose is now one of my super hero's. 

I have learned more through losing her than any other experience of my life.  I have loved reading her journals and seeing who she was in her heart.  She keep a gratitude journal that she wrote in almost daily.  I am grateful she spent time each evening pondering on the simple blessings of her day. Her words have become sacred to me now. I can see that the Lord was leaving us clues in the things she felt prompted to write about.  Even though we thought she was going to serve a 1 1/2 year mission, Heavenly Father needed her to help him, and through her words I can see she was aligning her will with his.

Having her record inspires me to continue to write, because I am blessed by reading what was important to her.  She has taught me the value of recording our innermost feelings. I have often thought how wonderful it would be to read my grandmother's journal of her experiences when she lost her two little girls. I feel it would help guide me through this darkest of times...

 

     So I write....


A couple of entries I found today in Madie's journal :)