A beautiful morning. A typical early spring day, the air is warm and crisp. It would be Anita's 76th birthday, but she passed away two days ago.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer when we moved down here in May of 2004. She survived and did very well for four years. Last summer she found out cancer had returned, this time the cancer "bugs" showed up in her bones. Radiation and chemo did not work– cancer cells outgrew the treatments. In mid-January she decided to stop all treatments.
Her elder sister flew down from North Carolina to look after her with an open-end return ticket. She looks exactly like Anita. And every time I saw her out there in the yard or picking up mail, I thought it was Anita and I'd say, "Oh, she's doing better today". But there is no doing better. Not for Anita.
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– John, April 11, 2009
Just got back from the memorial for Anita.
It was really quite nice. I stayed about an hour and a half. Talked with Martha and Marian and one of Don's daughters and Anita's sister.
They had sandwiches and sweets and iced tea & coffee, etc. It was outdoors under the trees by the lake with tables set up.
They showed a continuous slide presentation of Anita throughout her life. Quite amazing. Turns out she did trapeze in the circus and water ski shows at Cypress Gardens and was on the UCF tennis team. She was a down hill skier.And ..... quite a beauty.
I am glad I went. It was nice being there.
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