Mildred and Chris

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz30 Comments

I swear, my blog won’t always be about death after this post.

Near the end of September I was feeling heavy and asked for you, my dear blog friends to say some prayers for my friends Mildred and Chris.

I’d met Chris through blogging in 2009; she wrote about her life, just as I did. We connected over our love of boxers and our enjoyment of absolute silliness. After a few years, she quit blogging, but we were Facebook friends. She was a sweet woman who had many health challenges over the years, but she always had this lovely outlook on life; she really lived each moment and rarely wallowed over her ailments. She loved to send me cute butterfly or bee photos or some funny jokes via messenger. I was sad to learn that her body was failing her via one of her sons, and then she passed away a week later. Chris was in her early 60’s.

I can only hope that there is a heaven where Chris will be surround by boxer puppies & rescue cats and that her body is healthy and strong.

My sweet friend Mildred had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer several months ago. She went into this with a positive attitude, jumping through all the damn insurance hoops to start chemo. Sadly, the chemo was taking a toll on not only her, but her family who she is the sole caretaker of.

My heart broke for her. Still though, she kept her sunny outlook although she had wished for more time to do all the things she wanted to do.

She opted for home hospice to make it easier on her family, and then last Monday the pain was too much and she opted to go to a hospice facility. Her husband emailed me on Saturday morning letting me know she had passed away.

{the Busy Bee girls with Mildred 2010}

It was a mere 11 years ago that we finally met up in person ; we’d already been blog friends for several years. While the girls and I were visiting my Mom in GA the four of us took a 40 minute ride over to see Mildred and her husband. We had such a great visit; Mildred took us to an interesting art boutique for some shopping therapy, then we picked up lunch and ate together at their home. Ironically, that very art boutique has now added a wine/music venue and I’ve been there several times as it’s very close to our GA house. Thank you Mildred for that introduction.


Mildred and John moved away from the GA area several years ago, so that was our one and only in-person visit. We snail-mailed and emailed often and she was SO darn excited for Lolo’s wedding. I was happy to email her some ‘not ready to share with the pubic’ photos a few weeks ago. Even the day before she left for hospice, she was emailing me and saying how much she loved my family and was so happy and proud of our daughters. (Mildred did not have any children herself)

Mildred was the sweetest soul and one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. She always left the sweetest comments and sometimes she would think of something after the fact and email me whatever she thought of, sometimes it was something silly that she didn’t think the entire internet needed to know.

I can only hope that there is a heaven for Mildred where she will reconnect with her parents whom she adored, be surrounded by happy dachshunds and that she can eat endless desserts without gaining a pound.

Life truly is fleeting.

If I’m not back later this week, it’s been fun.

If I’m back later, I might have something silly to talk (or complain) about.

Did any of you realize that you could find lovely friends through blogging? I wasn’t expecting that to happen.

Thank you for being here with me; my friends who live in my computer actually live in my heart too.

XOXO

Your friend Suz

Trying to Bee Thankful & Cheerful, Let’s Bee Walkers And Not Fallers, Plus Fall!

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz24 Comments

My last post. *sigh* Still feeling forlorn. I wrote it when I was more angry than sad, if that makes any sense. Knowing and loving someone before they’re born, you feel it in your core. I’m beside myself.

The Coach and I traveled to GA with our two favorite four legged misfits.

I accidentally tried to kill Callie with a long walk the other day. It was only 25 minutes, but man, the HILLS. She was stumbling and falling; her back legs were giving out and her front legs were also quitting on her on our way back home. I would have called the Coach to come pick us up, but he left to run an errand. I apologized to her 27 times and said ‘we’re almost home’ about 36 times on our way back. Once home, she proceeded to sleep for 2 hours straight and I vowed to never take her that far again. As youthful as she might appear, 14 for a big dog means she’s a bonafide senior citizen.

Guess what is still hanging! Our version of the Hanging Chad; that stubborn, stubborn broken branch.

We were about a week too late for peak fall color, but it’s still lovely.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

I never had a short dog until Lillie. Even though Callie’s bowl is tall, she manages to get her head in there to see if her elderly friend missed a kibble or two.

The weather has been mostly pleasant, but cold because you know, it’s WINTER. Which is different than our typical Florida weather.

I’m a fan of enjoying my cup of coffee as close to the fire in the morning as possible, well, that is unless *someone* brings it to me in bed which is my most favorite thing ever. I really think we need a screen of some sort though. {it’s gas and those are fake logs, but not as annoying as the old fake doors}

A few days after we found out about losing Kelly, Linds asked me how I was feeling. Me: Still sad. But she pointed out that at least since I was in the mountains, it was a good place to be sad.

She’s correct.

Speaking of Linds, she had her phone swiped while out with two of her girlfriends last weekend. She felt horrible and kind of dumb for letting it happen, but it turns out that three people had their phone swiped from the same location. How crappy is that?The good news is that she survived without a communication device for four days. For a Millennial, I think that’s the equivalent to Tom Hanks in Castaway. Right?

I hope all my friends who read this are doing well; thank you for your good thoughts.

XOXO

Heartbroken.

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz

My dear forever friend D lost her son to suicide this past weekend. I loved him before he was even born; his Mom and I were pregnant together with our first babies. We were new mom’s together, trying to figure it all out. I’m at a loss. My heart hurts. I’ve been crying and I want to cry more. I want to scream. I want him to know that pain, heartache and disappointments are normal and are temporary feelings.

Death is forever. His final choice in life was selfish.

{Lolo and Kelly circa 1995 when the six of us visited Sea World in TX. D and I were both pregnant again with baby #2 on this trip. Both of them are making a ‘face’, I’m guessing the sun was in their eyes}

I’m mad at him for this. How can you do that to your family?

We had a beautiful visit with their family just seven years ago while they were in Florida; I remember crying when they left because I’d not realized how much I loved and missed them after not seeing them in person for 18 years.

It seemed that Kelly was doing great. He was in California making his dreams come true; he was writing a book, writing a screen play. He was such a highly intelligent (Mensa Club), kind hearted and funny human; I don’t know how his mom, dad and brother are going to fare without his presence.

If you can, please send good thoughts to my Texas friends who are truly devastated right now; D, Jeff and Bryan.

Life is fleeting. Tell those that you care about how much they mean to you. YOU, my blog friends, mean a lot to me.

{comments are off for today}

XOXO