In Memoriam

Today I received word that the husband of my very dear Friend G passed away in his sleep.   There was no warning; he just didn't wake up in the morning.

I was maid of honor at their wedding - like mine and HWMBO's, the second for each.  Like us, they were a blended family, with all the extended family connections that are part and parcel of a blended family.  I know Friend G well, having met her at around the same time as I met HWMBO.  Like me, she loves travel and different cultures.  She continues to work with the public education system in the state of South Carolina.  Her three grown children, whom I first met when they were all younger than my own, have all done exceedingly well professionally.  They have also made her a grandmother four times over.  Here we are together with a mutual friend the last time that we saw each other, in the late summer of 2007.  She is on the left.

After parting from her first husband, she began working outside the home, as a single parent.  She also continued graduate studies and met her second husband around the same time as she completed them.  They relocated to South Carolina with the two younger children and she began her career in education there.  She has been especially good at inspiring the younger generation to look beyond their parochial surroundings and to examine and realize opportunities available around the globe.  She has led student travel tours, including tours to Europe, in order to open minds that need to be more aware of our interdependence and reliance on each other and on the same natural resources.  She has been a special counselor and friend to students from other countries who spend school years as exchange students in the South Carolina public school system.

Her husband was a good man, a kind man who encouraged her in all of her endeavors and was a major part of her success.  In all things, he was her best friend and support system even though he didn't accompany her in all of her travels.  He helped her to become the person she has become.  She will miss him greatly.  Here are the three of us together in 2007.  At the time, he needed surgery and I helped to convince him that he would feel much better after having it, having undergone a similar procedure myself.

My own heart is heavy for her now.  No matter how inevitable we know that death is and no matter how prepared we believe that we are, we are never ready to lose those whom we love - no matter how far apart we may be from them.