A trip to Maple Valley

I have a best friend Linda, we met when I was 7 years old and she was 8 (she is about 8 months older than me).   My family lived down at the end of a dead end street, she was at the very top of the street.  We both went to St. Edward's Catholic Grade School.  We became fast friends and spent a lot of time at each other' homes.  Mostly, if my recollection is correct, I was at her house more because she needed to keep an eye on a younger brother and sister.  When she was in junior high, her family moved to the Des Moines area in Washington and then when I was a sophomore, my family moved down here to Milwaukie, Oregon.  Through the moves and marriages and children and her divorce, we have remained best friends and always look forward to spending time together to catch up and to craft!  She went to Medjugorje with me last May and that was a very special bond for the two of us.

Anyway, I digress.  Her family is like a second family to me.  Her dad is is from Spanish decent and grew up in New Mexico.  He always teased me about painting my blue eyes brown to match his other two daughters!  Linda's mom had breast cancer nearly five years ago and was in fact coming up on her 5th year being a survivor, however in the fall she started to have some stomach issues and started losing a lot of weight.  The end result is that the cancer is back and has spread and she doesn't have a lot of time left.  Right now she is not in any pain and for that we are most thankful.  I wanted to see her and spend time with her while we could still talk and for me to come away with good memories.

I took the train up on Friday and Linda met me at the Tukwila depot.  We had a great weekend, even got in some crafting!  We actually went to a "Stamp Camp" on Saturday morning and made four cards and a project that could be mounted on the refrigerator. 

Winnie and I got to spend some time alone talking about death and fear of dying and then we said the rosary together.  It was of course heart breaking for me and I was pretty emotional, but I told her that the good Lord will be holding her hand and guiding her every step of the way.  I told her that He loves her with such great love that He will be there to comfort her and give her strength to carry the cross she is to bear.  I bought her a rosary CD so that when the time comes that she will not have the strength to speak the prayers of the rosary, she will be able to hear them and I hope that will give her comfort.  Her husband is still living, he is 11 years older than her, he is 89 1/2 right now.  These last months will be most difficult for him as he sees his wife of 61years losing the battle of life.  However, with her faith and love for God, she will be inheriting eternal life in heaven.

Sunday afternoon one of Linda's sons invited us all to have dinner with his family, we picked up Frank and Winnie and drove them to Kelly's house.  We had a delightful time visiting with Kelly's family, he has a son almost 7 years old and two step daughters who are 15 and 17.  More good memories were made that night.