Day 184
I am, once again, heartbroken.
I came home tonight to the lousiest of lousy emails … my former neighbor and dear, dear friend passed away on Friday. Her son, somehow (thankfully) found my email address and contacted me with the sad and unexpected news.
I don’t know what happened so can only surmise she had a stroke or heart attack.
I called her and left a message sometime last week and sent off a little goodie for her in the mail on Friday … but we never connected. The goodie will probably arrive in her mailbox tomorrow.
On my trip to Denver last month I saw her twice … once on my way into town and again with Sam for an afternoon visit. I am SO glad we were able to see her. We shared a bunch of laughs and it was like old times.
Whenever we’d get together we’d share smiles and giggles just like a pair of 7th grade girls! The 21 years between us dissolved and it was just us … soul sisters … the age difference was never an issue. We were just giggle buddies together.
Sigh.
We moved into our house on Elizabeth on Father’s Day of 1986. Ted was 14 months old. Sam wasn’t even a twinkle in our eyes, yet.
Carole and Mel lived in the house directly south of us and over the years our friendship grew. Her sons were my age and lived away and even from the start there was no age difference between us … it was always just us. We didn’t have a mother-daughter connection we were always just friends.
Good, good friends.
She and Mel were avid bridge players and on days or nights when he might be out at a tournament I would go over and we’d sit in her basement level family room and chat and giggle for hours on end. We talked about everything. We’d laugh about the kids and the dogs and the husbands and the ‘hood. We’d talk about pertinent and stupid things. We covered it all. There’d be times (too often to admit) when Tim would call telling me it was time to come home! I’d even go over in my pj’s sometimes … we were just so comfortable with each other.
Mel died while we were in South Carolina on vacation 16 years ago. I always felt badly I was not home at that time to be there for her. We arrived back home after his funeral and after her family had left. I remember I got out of the car on our return and rushed across the lawn to see her and we stood in her kitchen and both cried our hearts out.
She moved across town some 12 years ago … it’s one of those things that is forever on my calendar. I hated that day. But as the years passed we’d do lunch and visit and laugh and phone and see each other every month or so … but how I missed those over the fence chats whether they were in her family room or kitchen or actually over the fence.
She loved my family. And we her. She was such a special treasure. And, though heartbroken, I am so grateful she was in my life. She was such a gift.
(Hey neighbor … thanks for the laughs.)