It’s the little things that make the moments of our lives extra special. And it takes a big heart to fill them with love.

Serendipity.

That’s what Sandra Dempsey Post provided for readers for more than 40 years all over central Illinois, especially The Community Word — and Healthy Cells and Senior News & Views and the Limestone Independent News, to name just a few of the publications that published her prose.

“Everybody could take bits and pieces from everything she wrote,” her husband, Terry Post, said. “They could say, ‘That’s my family.’

“She knew what family was all about.”

Sandra Post died Feb. 16 after a long battle with cancer. She was 74.

Her last piece for The Community Word appeared on the front page of December’s issue. And “The ‘good dishes’ serve up most memorable moments” is an excellent example of Sandra’s serendipitous style.

She spun a yarn that strung together the family traditions established by her elders from the 1950s and ’60s that she remembered so fondly as she carried them into this century:

“There were Thumbprint cookies, eggnog, finger food, and always candy from Fannie May,” Post wrote, “plus a full dinner.”

But the piece was punctuated by some of the personal rivalries between her and her mom and her sister; then her own children, “And almost always some adult needed a second cup of coffee. Really?” Philosophical, almost.

Indeed, husband Terry reports that his wife of almost 53 years continued her education later in life when she took some classes at Illinois Central College back in 1985. Then she was off to Bradley University for a degree in — you guessed it — Philosophy.

“The way she started writing was in English classes,” Terry recalls. “She would always have to write stories, and a professor suggested she write for newspapers.”

Her first article for this newspaper appeared in the April, 1988 edition of the West Bluff Word, which was Patricia Kenny’s publication that would become The Community Word.

Although “Sentimentality is my specialty” (April, 2011), Sandra’s done quite a bit of reporting.

“She really worked with it, and really cared about it,” Terry said. “She would ask questions. Nosy? That’s just the way she was.”

There’s “The pleasures and rewards of walking” (Healthy Cells, Dec., 2011), which is about a 90-year-old who Sandra no doubt saw buzzing about her beloved Bartonville. “Let’s go out to eat” (50 Plus News & Views, April, 2017) delved into dining.

Generations of readers ate up Sandra’s vivid attention to detail. “She was so careful in her writing,” Terry says. “She wanted to get the story right.”

Sandra was going through grueling chemotherapy treatments her last year, and those in the know could not help but notice that her pieces were preparing herself for her own final reward with her Lord. Undaunted, she made deadline — several days early even.

“She was always wanting to be prompt with her articles,” Terry explained. “And garage sales.

“These people have writing in their lives,” he continued. “She loved it.”

— Brian Ludwig is Managing Editor of The Community Word