Gone But Not Forgotten

(Way Back Wednesday sponsored by The Kept Woman)

The three deaths of loved ones that have made the most impact on me,
My dear friend Cynthia,
My grandpa Big George,
My crazy grandma Rita.


Cynthia and I, having a beer together circa 1995.
That was the last time I saw her alive.


She and I were great friends in high school. She was such a free spirit who lived by her own rules. I loved her. She was someone I have always wanted to be like. One that takes life in easy strides and lives it to the fullest!
Some great, crazy times we had together...
She died at the age of 18, drowned one night after jumping in the river for some late night fun with friends.
I was away at college and she was still back in St.Louis.
I got the dreadful call from her mother.
I didn't really know how to deal with the death of someone so close to me, someone so young who died an unexpected death.
I kept picturing her death over and over in my mind, and envisioning her last moments. I tried to imagine how she must have felt drowning... what did she feel when she realized she was going to die? was she scared? helpless? at peace? I'll always remember Todd telling me drowning was a peaceful way to go.
Many months after the funeral I still had not truly "greived" her death and became very depressed. It was a long time later I finally let go of her (if you know what I mean). It was then I stopped dreaming that her death was all just a big hoax.



This is my BG.


Big George we called him. He's George's dad.
We moved into his house after my grandmother died. We lived together as a family for 8 or so years. I have piles and piles of good memories from all the holidays, birthdays, vacations, laughs, arguements, and conversations we spent together.
He slipped and fell on his birthday one year. He went into the hospital and it was downhill after that. He had Alzeimers and a number of other physical ailments from smoking cigarettes for so many decades. It broke my heart to see him in his last days so small and weak lying in bed stripped of everything he stood for.
I remember BG as a very dignified, generous, hard working, put-together man who believed in good manners and acting proper.


Crazy red-headed Rita, my grandma on my mom's side.


She was a hoot!!
Some of my favorites...
Telling me, "Honey, you should stuff your bra with some oranges!"

"Love 'em and leave 'em honey. Love 'em and leave 'em."

"I haven't shook my ass like this in 30 years!!" at my sister's wedding.
She insisted she couldn't walk anywhere without her walker, but when the music started at the wedding she got up and had no problems bustin a move!

Of course she was also on the somewhat delusional side at times and would coin certain people as evil; sometimes she thought my mom, or my sister, or aunt were pregnant and was angry and upset with us because she thought we were hiding it from her.; and how the nurses at The Home were always stealing from her and that she "would kick their asses."
Oh she was a funny one alright!