Vicki Sentelle

First off, mom was a huge football fan. Whenever she wasn’t working, she was absolutely watching a football game. It didn’t matter what team or who she was rooting for, that was a huge passion of hers.

My mom was an incredibly hard worker as well. She worked at Wal-Mart for the last 20 years. She was so committed to her job despite how challenging working in retail could be at times. She also loved doing photography and never missed a chance to take pictures of the world around her and the people she was with.

My mom and I also connected on our love for video games. Any time she would come to visit, we would play a game on the Xbox and I have so many fond memories of playing games together on the various consoles we owned while I was growing up.

The absolutely most important thing to my mom however was family. We were always put first and there was nothing more important to her than spending time together.

Mom was 53, but in my eyes she never looked a day over 30. She had the most amazing smile and laugh and could find humor in just about anything around her.

She was absolutely a kid at heart and loved to fly drones, play video games, and collect Minions – all things that I miss so much and wish I had had more time to do with her.

She was also one of the most caring people out there. She never hesitated to spend money on her friends and family when she could and gave the best, most comforting hugs to whoever needed one. She was a great listener and had such a big heart.

My mom’s sister-in-law passed away after two failed liver transplants before I was born. My mom loved and adored her so much and considered her to be one of her best friends. When discussing organ donation, because of my family’s past experience and knowing how much of a giving person my mom was, it took no time to decide that that is what my mom would have wanted. Even though my aunt was unable to live a longer life, it brings some comfort knowing that my mom may have been able to give someone else a second chance.