Diane Lee Teel, was born November 26, 1943 in El Monte, CA to Leon Smith and Zoe Smith. Her father was a dairyman and Diane began life around dairy cows, hay, milk trucks and cow dogs. When she was seven years old her father bought a dairy in Enumclaw, Washington. She spent the next ten years in Enumclaw, graduating from EHS in 1961. The small beautiful town at the base of Mt. Rainier allowed freedom to hike, ride horses and spend time with her sister Denise and best friend Gloria. She was also involved in 4H and showed a registered Holstein heifer until her father discovered that she had placed a plastic bag, secured by rubber bands, around her cow’s tail to keep it clean; it had cut off circulation and caused the tail to fall off. Diane's show career was over. High school days included many close friends from school and the local church of Christ. Diane served in student body offices and as cheerleader. After graduation from EHS at age 17,Diane left Enumclaw on a bus with her friend Gloria for Los Angeles and Pepperdine College. She met her future husband, Paul, at a freshman orientation camp at Big Bear Lake during her first week in California. Diane majored in Sociology and received her degree in 1964. Diane and Paul were married July 31, 1964. After graduation they moved to Fresno, CA where both were employed by the state of California as Social Workers. Following a short stent as caseworkers Diane and Paul were accepted into a Masters program at Oregon College of Education. After spending the year living in Salem they completed the program and moved to Tacoma, Washington to begin teaching in a public elementary school which also had a complete K through 6th grade program for deaf and hard of hearing students. Diane taught for one year before resigning to have her first daughter, Susan in 1968. Diane stayed home to be a full-time mom and in 1970 her second daughter Mindy was born. Her years in Tacoma were blessed by living near Enumclaw where her parents were still running the family dairy. Diane and Paul were warmly welcomed on many weekends and were blessed to share Susan and Mindy with their grandparents. Those shared times created very strong and loving relationships. Diane and her family of four moved to Boise in 1978. Susan and Mindy were enrolled in the new underground school Amity Elementary. Diane was blessed to continue as a stay at home mom during their elementary years. She later began teaching again in Kuna, then at Borah High and Garfield Elementary in Boise. She retired after 20 years due to health issues. Diane had many health challenges and trials. The following account of the final years and moments of Diane’s earthly life was written by Mindy Tiber, Paul and Diane’s youngest daughter. My Testimony of Mom: It was 3:30 in the morning on Wednesday, less than two days after mom’s passing, and again I couldn’t sleep. If I did doze off, I would wake myself up from sobbing. I got up and was praying at the kitchen table and sat in front of my computer. God put it on my heart to read the book of Job. I have read it before, I know the story. I have always felt mom was like Job, but God wanted me to read it again, so I did. After reading it, here is what I wrote: God, I pray that you would hold back these floodgates of my heart as I write this testimony about your daughter, Diane, my mom-our mom, loving wife, sister, friend and grandma. Pastor Bob and Cathy gave us this verse for mom in the hospital before she went to be with Jesus and I wanted to share it with you from 2 Timothy 4:6-8: “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who loved His appearing.” Mom’s life was a drink offering, a sweet smell to our God. She was a living sacrifice for Him. I always think of mom like Job in the Bible. I think of God saying “Look at my faithful servant, Diane.” Job lost his wealth, his family, his health and he was discouraged, had great grief and questioned why these things were happening. Which I also questioned…after 13 plus years of trials…Why God, did mom’s last two days have to be so difficult? And this is why God had pointed me to read the book of Job again and to show me how mom’s responses over the years, even unto her last breath, were like Job’s (more importantly, like Jesus)…she chose to praise her Savior no matter what. During and after Job’s losses of wealth, family and health, he fell to the ground and worshiped and said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Even Job’s wife said, “Curse God and die,” but Job said to her “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?”Job ended up accepting his trials and praising God, accepting God’s plan for him. Job acknowledged that God was sovereign in his life and ended up receiving more back in his life than before his trials. Mom had many trials and did just that, acknowledged God’s sovereignty, praised Him no matter what and continued to worship Him and accept His plan for her life. Just a quick rundown of some of her trials: Miscarriages-she had two and felt they were both boys. Horse stepping on her face-When we were growing up some friends came over after church to ride horses and mine was acting up so mom said she would ride her first. She bucked mom off over her head and my horse looked like she was purposefully stomping or jumping on her face. Doctors were amazed at this miracle that she had no broken bones in her face. Mom always reminded me of how I had asked to take her to show and tell because her face was so big and colorful.:) Asthma-when we moved to Idaho in 1978 from Tacoma, she developed severe asthma and had like 6 different inhalers. Sulfite Allergy-she developed a sulfite allergy that closed off her throat one night while eating shellfish at a local restaurant. Sulfites are preservatives on many foods and can making eating life threatening, especially if eating out. Pacemakers-one morning mom was having a Bible study at McDonald’s and her heart gave out. She crashed and miraculously God had a doctor there too that heard her hitting the ground and came to help her. She has flat lined 9 times and was on her second pacemaker. Cancer-about 13 years ago mom got breast cancer. She had prayed about telling us and God somehow had us all show up at the fruit department at Fred Meyer and that is where she told us. After reconstructive surgery, one of the lead wires going into her heart became infected and they had to do emergency surgery to get the pace maker out, which damaged one of her heart valves. Her doctor’s names were Susan and Mindy. I believe that for them to have the same names as my sister and I was no mere coincidence. Was it a sign that God was in control even when we felt things were not? God is in control and in all details. And her oncologist for the past 13 years is named Paul, like my dad. I love how God can use even names to show His divinity. After God cured her of the breast cancer, 5 years later she was taking another friend for treatment to MSTI and noticed a lump in her neck on that day. The cancer had returned and she had chemo again and radiation. She had to be hospitalized for a time there because her throat was so swollen that she couldn’t eat or drink. This last round with cancer came two years ago when dad had taken her to the ER thinking she might have had a stroke. The ER doctor came back in to us and said he didn’t see any signs of a stroke but asked her if she had been in any pain. Mom said no and the ER doctor said on the scans they saw cancer present in every visible bone. She had such strength. As Dad, Susan and I were dissolving into tears around her hospital bed, Mom starts praying and thanking God that we were there with her…praising Him no matter what the circumstance. I remember mom asking Dr. Montgomery what would happen if she did nothing and he said that in four months she would probably be bleeding out of every part of her body. She went ahead with chemo and was becoming weaker in her body, but not in her mind or soul or her spirit. God brought her through that stage 4 bone cancer, which was another miracle, and then came recently the diagnosis that she had two tumors on her cerebellum. Her veins were pretty much shot from all of the past chemo so they had a port put in her chest, but they opted to do oral chemo because they also found a blood clot in her neck; so Dr. Montgomery had her on blood thinners as well. Any time you would ask mom how she was doing, she wouldn’t complain. She would say, “Oh, I feel better than yesterday.” God gave her the grace to walk through these trials with her joy full because she trusted in Him and His joy was her strength. On Sunday, the 6th, dad was with mom at about 4:00 in the morning when it appeared she had a seizure. He was able to pick her up and call 911. She came to quickly and when we met them at St. Luke’s she was her normal self. She was, however, in great pain and the x-rays and scans revealed she was compacted; one of the side effects of the drugs she was taking was constipation. We thought that once she had all of these additional IV fluids in that she would be fine. Around 1 in the afternoon things progressively got worse and mom’s abdomen was swelling greatly and her blood pressure was low and unstable. They immediately moved her to critical care. Hours later, she still couldn’t have pain medication because of her unstable blood pressure so the pain was intense. She would moan and we would all feel so helpless. Dad would come in and out of the room, but seeing his bride of 48 years in such agony was overwhelming. Susan and I were on each side of her throughout the night because she kept trying to get up. They put a tube down her nose to try and empty her belly to relieve the pressure or swelling and she would be spitting up something frequently. Every time Susan and I wiped her mouth or suctioned it out, she would weakly say “thank you.” The nurses and doctors were wonderful caring for mom. At one point I think I counted nine different IV bags hanging around her, maybe more. She had lines going in everywhere. They even had to sew an additional line in her neck. She had already been through so much, yet even as the doctors and nurses were pricking and poking and moving her, she would say, “Sorry. I’m sorry you have to do this.” Even in her pain she was thinking about and praying for others. She spoke more than once about our brother in Christ, Saeed who is in prison in Iran for his faith in Jesus. The doctors wanted to do a scan with dye to see if that might reveal a perforated or twisted intestine. It revealed no tear or twisting but her colon was enlarged and swollen and they determined she had septic shock. At that point she hadn’t even had a fever. That didn’t come until later and it went about to 103 and half. They put mom on life support because her heart and lungs were failing. She couldn’t talk but they had stabilized her blood pressure enough to give here drugs to ease her pain. Mom remained cognizant and would squeeze our hands, nod to questions and sometimes open her eyes. We struggled with taking her off life support but the doctors told us that even if she became stable, her body couldn’t handle a surgery to deal with the internal colon issues. Pastor Bob prayed with us and asked for God’s wisdom to do what was best for mom. We knew that it was best for her to be with Jesus, but it was a battle to take her off of life support knowing that she knew what was going on and the finality of her time with us. When dad and I asked her if she wanted everything taken off she wouldn’t nod or communicate, but when Dr. Montgomery or her friend and sister in the Lord, Meg Spencer, who is a nurse and was with mom to the end asked her, she nodded yes. She left it up to the medical team because I know she didn’t want her family to feel burdened with that decision. She was so sweet and thoughtful. Mom had communicated in the past to dad that she didn’t want to be kept alive on life support but it was still so hard to let her go. Someone came and turned off her pacemaker, they gave her more drugs for pain, the respiratory therapist took her off the ventilator and the nurses began taking all of the tubes out of her. Dad, Susan and her husband Kenny, my husband David, Meg and Pastor Bob, Cathy and I were all around her and we sang the Lord’s Prayer and we all prayed and thanked God from our hearts for different things about mom, crying and speaking through tears. When Dad prayed for the second time as he was leaning over her, hugging her and holding on to her hand, my sister and I looked at each other and I believe that is when she went to be with Jesus. We had much guttural sobbing and at the same time relief and joy that mom wasn’t in any more pain and was with the One who made her, who orchestrated her first from her last day, who carried her and sustained her through many trials and suffering and Who gave her peace and joy and love beyond measure. God says He won’t give us more than we can handle and he knew mom would remain a great witness for Him and a testimony of His faithfulness and love. We are so thankful to God for all of you, this family of believers, for our Pastor, Bob and his wife, Cathy. Thank you all so much for the love, support and prayers throughout the years. We are thankful for the wonderful doctors and nurses she has had at MSTI, St. Luke’s and her family doctor Dr. Spencer. Their care and concern was the hand of God too. I know that mom has touched so many. People will tell us she was their mentor, their best friend or tell us of specific times that mom had touched them with her kindness and love, His kindness and love. We ask that you would continue to celebrate mom with us by writing your special thoughts about mom under "lifestories" on this website. I know many of you have done this through words, cards and emails or texts but we would ask that you would bless us with that gift so that our family and anyone who might read them would be encouraged by your words and ultimately praise our Father in Heaven. May our Great God richly bless you with His love and peace and may your joy be full in Him. We know there will still be tears ahead but we also know that our mourning will be turned to joy. Like Jesus told His disciples when they were filled with sorrow at the thought of not seeing Him for a while and assuring them that He would see them again, “Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. And in that Day, you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full (John 16:22-24). Father, I ask in Jesus’ name, that everyone reading this and many more would come to know You and Your love and that their joy would be full in You. Thank you that you sent Your only Son to die for each one of us. Help us to remember that the world can only offer temporary happiness but only You can give everlasting joy and life. Lord, draw these precious people by your Spirit. Open their hearts and minds to understand You and know Your will. Again we ask this in Jesus’ name. Pressing on for His honor and glory- Mindy Tiber, Diane’s (and Paul's) youngest daughter