An Infamous Day

Thank you to the over 6000 folks who have read this blog. I have much to add about water sustainability, green living, cooking, crafts,and literature. I have been laid low the last month or two, and today I learned of three deaths of women who have been my friends and who were important to me. One was 90, but worked into her 80s. I met her when she was my age that I am now, and I worked for her with future brother in law in our junior high library. She was there for me when my youngest uncle died and my mother was in despair, and she was a kind friend to have.

My friend Barbie died on the 29th after struggling with cancer. Her mother never liked me much, and she tended to pit is in competitions against each other, but she liked my mother, who knew Barbie's mom better than I. Barbie and I hugged and cried during Jungle Book when we were brownies. We wrote a play about Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller with another friend, and staged it extempore for the 6th grade. We set up a writers club when we were ten, and I stayed up all night at her slumber party in 5th grade. One summer, we set up a haunted house in her basement, and used ketchup for blood. We learned to swim together, were in all our classes together, learned to sew, were in choir school and Bible school as well as Sunday school. She came to my house on weekends and we listened to The Messiah one Xmas when we were about 12, and my mom made us her favorite meatballs which Barbie loved. She was in my life, always on the periphery of my memory for 46 years, since we were five. May she rest in peace.

Our sweet Juli ran our little neighborhood bookstore, bought after my friend Jane passed suddenly away. She was always smiling, and always had a book in her hands. She was trusting and eager to help, and happy to organize her books and find others for me to read. She helped with my school projects, and had lots of ideas for things. I talked to her two weeks ago, and she was open last Saturday. She died Tuesday, much too soon, and I'm reeling from shock.

Before I learned they died, all three were in my mind and heart. I suddently thouight of them and couldn't stop, and then learned they had died. Life is fleeting, life is short. May you all be well, may all see another blue sky, another sunset. May you have another day to tell someone you love him or her. Be peaceful.