Friends

We've known Billye for over twenty years.   She was a character, which I know is a simple way of saying that there were so many things to love about her it's easier to say "she was a character".

We spoke briefly last week.  She said she needed hospice care.  She was dying.  She knew it and I am sure she was ready.  She got to live long enough to meet her beloved great grandson.  She was 96.

It is with great sadness that I report our friend Billye Stevens peacefully departed this world last evening, next to her beloved windowsill garden, and surrounded by her loving family. Your words and prayers were all read to her this week and such a comfort in her final hours. May her memory be a blessing.

I've lost an awful lot of friends in the last few years. Florence in January. Terry and Stephanie and Gary and David. Several friends have lost a parent to covid. Two cousins lost their partners to covid.

Two friends are going through a lot while they fight cancer.

And now there's a war in Ukraine and people are dying there too.

It's part of life, I know that. And I know that the pain in losing a dear one is because there was love first.

I want to live to be old because I love life. Flowers and birds and people, especially people. My loved ones. But, it seems the older you get, the more dead people you know. And so it goes.