In memory of my friend, Ann . . .

Tonight we lost our good friend Ann to cancer. She's been battling this disease for two years now, and lived much longer than the doctors originally thought. Tonight, although I'm sad to lose my friend, she is at Peace with the Lord -- and she's back with her beautiful daughter Jaime who was killed in a car accident her senior year and her husband Don who died two years after.

This family has been through so much this past year. Her brother Ken was diagnosed with kidney cancer; then her other brother Dane died from a heart attack; and Ken's daughter was killed in a car accident. I know she missed Dane so much -- they would have lunch together almost every day. She always thought she was the weak one -- but no one weak could have endured what Ann's been through.

Judy said tonight that she had out the photos of our trip to New York the other day and they were laughing about it. We had so much fun -- buying fake Rolexes and Doonie & Burke purses on the street. Ann and I were going to buy Judy a t-shirt that said "I've seen New York, now take me home!" We were walking down an alley past a parking garage, and Judy had on her trench coat with her trusty mace in her pocket . . . and the parking attendant said, "You got your gun in there?" We just laughed.

Since the three of us were rooming together, we had a room on the top floor with two double beds and a sofa bed. It was so hot in the room from the steam heat in a pipe that ran through the middle of our room, and our air conditioner didn't work. I called the desk about it, and they said, "Open the window." I thought, "Open the window? I'm in New York City! Someone will come in and kill us!" But we did. The next morning, there was the most horrible "garlic" smell coming through the window -- I wanted to gag. I think every Italian restaurant in NY was around our hotel, and it invaded every space! It was three years before I could eat garlic again.

And the hotel had the wierdest elevators -- it had a door to it on the floor, and if you opened the door before the elevator got there, there was just this big gaping hole to the bottom! One day we were in the elevator, and we asked someone to push our floor (don't remember what the number of the floor was, but it was the top one). Someone said, "Ooooh, the penthouse!" And Judy replied, "The roaches are just bigger up there!" (It wasn't the Marriott, that's for sure!)

Then Ann got locked "inside" our room and couldn't get the door to open! We always had problems with door locks when we went somewhere together! One time we were at the beach and us girls went down before the boys could come, and we went out on our balcony. Well, the sliding glass door shut and locked behind us. We couldn't get it open -- we were stuck on the 3rd floor balcony -- and the only people at the pool down below was a couple making out on a deck chair! Finally, a security guard was walking by, and Judy hollered, "Hey!" He looked up and stuck his finger to his mouth and said, "Shhhhhh." And Judy replied, "Don't tell me to shush, we're locked out of our room!" They didn't believe us, but thank goodness we hadn't put the chain on the door yet! They finally believed us when they saw the door and had to change the lock. But the guys had a good time with that when they got to the beach!

Another time we went to the beach in Destin and didn't have reservations. We stopped at a condo to ask if they had any rooms available. The lady said, "You know this is a C-O-N-D-O-M-I-N-I-U-M?" And we thought, "Well, duh! Do you have any rooms?" Every time afterwards, we'd always say to each other, "You know this is a condominium!"

Yep, we had some really good times in with the rotten bad times. We're glad we got our friend back after several years of the creep boyfriend who tried to turn her against her friends. We didn't get our chance to have another dinner out -- but the one we had a couple of months ago, we had a great time! We laughed like old times and enjoyed each other's company -- just what girlfriends are supposed to do.

It's tough to lose friends -- first Don, then Joel, and now Ann -- and family, like my sister Susan. But we don't forget them and what they've meant to us. And we know, like family we've lost, that one day we our time is up here on earth we'll get to rejoice with them in Heaven! Along with Todd, Lynn, Clay and Amanda -- we're going to miss you, Ann, but you're at peace now -- and you're whole and well with no more spots on your head! We'll always love you!