Happy 61st Birthday, my dear amiga! I wish you and I could chat today about getting old, about memories of our adventures at Clarke and in Ireland, and I wish we could plan another adventure in Scotland, or even just meeting up back in Iowa, where we could talk about our various family foibles.
You wouldn't believe how big and smart and handsome your godson Nick is! He's amazing, and I know you'd love talking to him and telling him tales out of school about his old mom, me. I'm sure he'd love meeting your grown nieces and nephews, too. They're all college age by now, too.
I wish I'd have been able to keep some of the photos of you that I brought to your funeral, but your family wanted to keep them in rememberance, and I suppose that is more important than me having them to look at...but I've only got one photo left of you, and as I age, my memories get fuzzy, so I'm afraid I will lose memories of what you looked like at the Ren Fest in Wisconsin, or of you in Mary Fran at Clarke, holding court with great elan.
I wish I'd gotten more time to see you at work in the Marshalltown Library, or having fun with your brothers or chatting with your wonderful Mum. She's still alive and kicking, and I find her strength astounding...but then, I'm amazed at the health and vitality of my own mom, who is nearing 85 and can still get around with just a cane for stability once in awhile.
I often wonder what you'd look like now, with gray hair, or if you'd do what I do and color it every two to three weeks with a cheap box of burgundy hair color? Or would you have grown it back out, like you had it the first year of Clarke, when it was in two long braids down your back. Then you had it all cut off so your hair was in a pixie cut, and you looked great! But I remember that you kept your cut off braids and cried a bit over that first week when you looked at them.
I'm in touch with some of our classmates from Clarke, and you'd be amazed at how much, and how little they've changed in the past 39 years. Mary Rose is still hilarious, with her dry and deadpan humor, and Alice N is still a delightful person who has been a teacher now for years. Tracy B married a wealthy guy and had four sons, who are graduating from college now. Laura lives in California, I think, and is still lovely. I wish you could come to the 40th reunion at homecoming next year, but I don't even know if I can make it, since I have a compromised immune system and with my asthma acting up, I can't afford to get COVID or a variant thereof. Since the theater dept has been shut down, Ellen and and Sr Carol don't teach anymore, but we all keep in touch online, sometimes via zoom chat rooms.
I still miss you so much. You'll always be alive in my memories and in my heart.
Happy 61st.
Much love,
DeAnn
