Today a life-long friend lost her life in an ATV accident. A normal everyday routine activity and then "poof" she's gone. The details are not important. All that matters is she's gone to a better place.
She and her husband met my family at the First Baptist Church in Aledo, Illinois when I must have been in kindergarten almost 40 years ago. Her and her husband became very close friends with my parents. Our families along with other families from church spent alot of evenings together in back yards surrounded by corn fields, lightning bugs, summer breezes and lots of laughter.
One memory that I always think about is a camping trip to Greenlake, Wisconsin for a church retreat. I was very young, about 8 years old. I remember it like it was yesterday. We had campers next to each other and us kids would go off with our bikes and explore the grounds and go swimming. One day it rained so hard we couldn't go anywhere and we were stuck in our pop-up camper all day.
In the winter I remember sledding parties and potlucks at church and christmas eve candle light services. I don't even know if I saw them there but that's the kind of memories that float to the surface.
Her husband stored my car for me in their machine shed while I was at basic training. A couple years back they threw my mom a 60th birthday party at their lake behind their farm. My mom and dad were one of the first people called when the accident happened yesterday. Mom and dad immediatley drove to our friend's house, grabbed some clothes and a wallet for her husband and drove to be by their side.
She and her husband were very devoted christians. The were a positive influence and I never heard either one say a bad word about anyone. She was hilarious as well. She was very independent, took no shit from anyone and always took care of her husband and family. Everyone in town knew them and she was well loved.
I only get back to Aledo once or twice a year. I swear almost every time I return for a visit I run into her and her husband some where in town. I alway get a hug and then asked how everything in my life is going. I'm not looking forward to the next time when I see just her husband. I won't know what to say.
It's funny how we live life not remembering things from out past until we lose someone who was in so many of those memories. Since I heard the news of her passing all of a sudden these obscure childhood memories start flickering in my mind and I start to re-live all those forgotten moments that meant so much. It also reminds me that you don't know when you time is coming, even doing the most routine everyday chore can be your last.
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