Life Happens

Our son is our only child.  Our house was one of the places to 'hang out' when Son was growing up in the small town of 5,000 in southwest Missouri.  Son was very active in everything.  Track, football, band, drama club, debate class and show choir were sandwiched with working for spending money.  The best we could we attended his activities.  We were able to get to know his friends.  Some of his friends were quiet while others were just like firecrackers.  Jean Ann was one of the firecrackers.

Jean Ann had a rough childhood.  I never really knew the specifics.  She married straight out of high school and produced two children.  The marriage ended and she move next door to one of my close friends.  Jean Ann bonded with both my friend and her husband.  Life happened and I lost track of Jean Ann.  Eventually Son who had move to central Texas by that time said Jean Ann had married another one of his schoolmates, Joey.  A few years later Jean Ann and Joey actually lived just a short distance from our Son.

We moved to central Texas, too.  Last year Jean Ann and I connected on Facebook.  Our political views moved along the same direction.  She cheered me on as I marched.  I cheered her on as she spoke her piece.  She had just finished creating her own art room a few weeks earlier and had a new elder cat to nurse during the cat's final days.  On I clicked her page last week and sat stunned.  A post a couple of days earlier noted she was hurting and just feeling like death.   Jean Ann had died suddenly.  Forty two years old and this outspoken, kooky, lady firecracker was gone.  I went to her funeral today.

Hug someone you love.  Do something kooky and do not worry about who is watching or hears.  Look at the sunset in a new way.  Cause there will come a time when life does not happen.

In peace,
Janice