Just a few minutes ago, I was notified of another death. My friend of 17 years, Gwen, died today. She had been suffering with Lou Gehrig's Disease for about 5 months.

This picture was taken in 1998 on Labor Day when she, and her roommate, took Tom and me riding on Bell River in their party barge. That was such a nice day. Gwen and I had planned to spend a lot of time on that river fishing and picture taking when I retire. Of course those plans have now changed......best layed plans.

I have had the privilege of knowing Gwen for 17+ years. She has remained a good friend for all those years, even when we didn't talk for a long time, we would pick up right where we left off. I will miss her calls where we would spend an hour or so talking and laughing and sharing some of our lives with each other. We addressed a lot of issues during those calls, and I learned a lot from this lady. She passed today at the age of 62. Too young, life is so short. Good bye my friend. I will see you again one day and we will spend lots of time on THE BIG RIVER. I love you.

My Hubby and I traveled to Mobile last week to attend Rorrock's funeral. It was very simple and elegant. I find it hard to grieve Rorrock's death since I know it is what she wanted and has wanted for a long,long time. She must be happy now being with her Charlie (my Fatpaw) and God. I learned that she died very peacefully; just closed her eyes with a smile on her face and went to sleep. We should all be blessed to meet our end that easily and peacefully.

At the funeral, I saw people I haven't seen in 45 years! One of my cousins, Anna, that I used to play with a lot when we were little girls was there. I was so surprised when I saw her. She actually recognized me! I didn't realize it was her though until she told me and then all I could do was cry. I saw ladies that my grandmother had been close friends with that I remember from my childhood. Sure does bring back a LOT of memories.

My brother had already planned a crawfish boil before Rorrock's death so we went ahead and held the get-together. It was really nice too. Boy! for being Alabamians instead of Cajuns, they sure threw one nice crawfish boil! We had so much food there, it was impossible to leave hungry. My sister had made a HUGE pot of Crawfish/Shrimp Etouffee and a huge pot of rice; someone was frying fish and squash slices and was bringing platters full of it around every 10 minutes or so; someone brought macaroni salad and potato salad and there was jambalaya; someone else had brought chocolate covered strawberries, banana pudding, brownies, and a couple of cakes, and some turtle cheese cake. There seemed to be a never ending supply of food. It was great. There was also a Kareoke (sp?) machine and people sang and danced and had a wonderful time.

Tom and I left Saturday morning to come back to reality. It rained all weekend pretty much and Sunday we just sort of lounged around all day and slept on and off, watched a little TV and that was it. We felt sort of lost without our dogs, but I am picking them up this afternoon when I get off from work.

Has anyone seen this movie? I just bought it for $6.95 at www.netflix.com . It seems like I remember wanting to see it at the movies, but never got the chance. Oh well, if it isn't any good, I will be getting it anyway. Guess I should have asked BEFORE I ordered it.

I sat down today and ordered a bunch of flowers/plants to put in my yard. I have never been much of a yard work person, but now that it's only 95 days till I 'graduate' from work, I figure I will have lots of time to do that. Rorrock always loved her flowers, so I think I will plant some in her memory. That way, when I look at them and see them bloom, I will know she is enjoying them just as much as I am. I am looking forward to doing that.

Well, I guess that's about all for today. I hope everyone else is doing ok and starting their week out happy and healthy.

I know I have posted recently about my grandmother (Rorrock). She peacefully passed away this morning at approximately 9:30 am. She had lived a very long time, 91 years and had a lot of, as she would so often say, "precious memories".

I have a lot of precious memories of her and my grandfather (Fatpaw) myself, some of which I have posted previously. I will have to write more about all that very soon.

I will be traveling to Alabama to attend services and be with my siblings, so I will be out of touch for a few days. I will post again when I get back. Please send your thoughts and prayers up to Him for my family at this time in our lives.