"About to be taken to another world. Much love to you."
So read the text from a friend. My reply, a short, " Much love to you too. I hope you fly."
hardly seemed adequate, but I knew time had run out for anything longer. At 65, and the picture of health, a bike accident sidelined her temporarily months earlier. At the otherwise routine appointment clearing her to resume normal activities, she mentioned in passing a stitch in her side that her physician thought might be a cracked rib. Imaged soon after, she instead had stage 4 lung cancer and would be gone in a year.
That brief period saw diminishing contact as she eventually got hospice care and both her cancer and its deep companion pain consumed her bones. Unable to control her pain, the hospice docs convened to discuss putting her under general anesthesia until she could pass away. She did that on 3 November 2017.
Her name is Rachel and she and I met as graduate students in our Library and Information Science program. I think of her often and miss her humor and the knack she had for discussing any little thing on her mind. She loved torch songs, jazz and ballads, her guitar and piano and had begun her professional life as a piano tuner, the first of several interesting jobs. A linguist and scribe, she loved languages and libraries and often on the move, lived around the country. I kept her address in pencil...
Hug a friend or loved one today and find something that captures your imagination...
