Saying Goodbye

A month has passed and I have neglected my blog. It turned out to be a month of events and unexpected news. Painting was sporadic, but continued nevertheless.

I try to keep my personal life separate from my art life, but sometimes one affects the other.

Saying Goodbye.

A good friend of 26 years left us a few weeks ago. All too soon. I know she isn’t the first to die too young (I happen to think 70 is too young), but she is the first among my many enduring friendships to go.

I met my friend Terry the first year I taught at a neighborhood school in Virginia Beach. I’ll never forget that day, as there were many of us who became longtime friends that year. Our principal had all of us in a faculty meeting share “how I spent my summer vacation” with one another as an ice-breaker for the newbies and to allow the returning faculty play a quick game of catch-up. We all rolled our eyes and thought about what to share, or not. It was Terry who made the biggest impression as she announced “I got married!” to the surprise of most everyone.

I mention that, because that marriage became a lasting and lovely testament to love, respect and admiration among two people. They adored one another. I not only have cried over my loss of a friend, but for his tremendous loss of his soul mate.

Terry was there for me when I went through my divorce from my first husband many years ago. I puppysat and housesat for her while she and Bobby took trips together. She and Bobby had the most beautiful home and opened it graciously to me. It was a paradise to me and a place where I would draw and paint during those housesitting times.

Terry was an excellent teacher who touched the lives of many children. She had the same effect on all who entered her life and more profoundly on those of us she called friend. And that is a good many people, as it turns out. She had a heart of gold, listened intently, and made all of us feel like we were the most important person in her life. Her sense of humor was keen and crisp, but never biting or harsh. She could tell a story and have us all rolling in laughter or chuckling knowingly at her take on life.

Terry was instrumental in keeping together the group of us who had forged a special friendship at school. We became the Lunch Bunch, and at least once a year for probably the past 20 years we would get together to share our lives, our trips, our failures and our successes. I don’t recall Terry ever missing a single Lunch Bunch. The next gathering will be, well, I don't know how it will be.

Dear Terry, May your energy be sent into the Universe, to be used for the highest purpose and greater good. May your star shine brightly as your memory lives on in our hearts. We miss you.