I’ve been working on Dad’s house all weekend, but my friend Charmaine (who recently drowned, inexplicably drowned) was on my mind all weekend. Her service was Friday and due to Dad’s health, we weren’t able to mark her passing with our dear friend Larry and her boys, Jeremy and Scott.
I’ve been blessed with incredible friendships with women. I’m not certain how they feel, but I don’t think I could deal with life without them.
Charmaine will leave a gap in the lives of everyone who loved her.
When we lived in the same town, we haunted book stores and cooking stores together. Her son Jeremy babysat for my kids. My husband (village president) hired her husband (police chief) in our village and Charmaine and I were friends thereafter, keeping in touch even after she moved to Drummond Island and later to Alabama.
Larry will come visit us in August–visiting folks who love him and who are almost as shell-shocked by this tragedy as he is.
It’s a good thing for him to do.
Dreams: I dreamed my aunt and uncle bought this enormous mansion and I had a room in it. The house seemed to need remodeling in parts of it. My niece Jennifer had a room there, and my daughter Hilary had one with three friends of hers. There were plans for many other people. I never saw my Uncle Dick but I finally found my Aunt Sandy, in a room at the far end of the mansion, which seemed more like a villa, one story, than a “mansion” I guess. Or it changed into one. Aunt Sandy was young and didn’t seem to have Alzheimers like she does now in real life. She was beautiful and dressed in a beautiful white nightgown. She was lying on the bed, like Snow White. She was lying very close to the edge of the bed and the gown seemed to flow onto the floor. She acknowledged me, but seemed loathe to speak. I felt I was intruding and left. I think I saw her twice there during the dream. Another house dream–I have recurring dreams about houses that are being refurbished.
L.E.K. 