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