Well, as always there's a lot to write about but tonight I am got some news that has made me very sad and I'm hoping it will help to write about it.
From 2nd grade on I lived on the 1500 block of Voorhees Avenue in Manhattan Beach. Back then you knew all your neighbors and we were a close block. There have been two families that have lived in the same house since before I moved there and I was very close to both. Phyllis, who lived across the street from me, was like a 2nd Mom and made a big impression on me. She believed in me, always told me how smart I was, and I got her daughters awesome hand me downs and I bought my first Beach Boys record from her son Brian at one of their famous garage sales. After high school, she gave me my first "big girl" job as her assistant at the travel agency where she worked. When I got pregnant (without being married) she did not judge me but instead she threw me a baby shower. She always wrote me glowing letters of recommendation, and has been my go to job reference for over 20 years. I know I can always count on her vote of confidence and her husband, Jerry, is pretty awesome too. In August she told me that the heart defect she has had since she was little is causing her slow death and she's not well, I refused to believe it. I saw her last week for lunch and she is looking more frail but still the same Phyllis, force of nature but apparently not long for this world. I haven't come to grips with this until I was given another piece of sad news tonight. This news is in relation to my other childhood neighbor Fran or MooMoo as we called her.
MooMoo and Poppy lived down the street from me and their daughter Sheri was like the older sister I never had. Sheri is 6 or 7 years older, had great taste in music (& hot boyfriends) and a baby named Kiana (KiKi) when I met her. She lived in the back room of her parents house, had cool bamboo furniture, 40's barkcloth material and wore ricrac dresses. She was the coolest chick I ever knew and I wanted to grow up like her (minus the baby), we would cruise around in her red convertible vw bug listening to 8 tracks, spend our summer days swimming at their pool or hanging out down at Longfellow. She introduced me to Selector, The Clash, Joan Armatrading, I even went to my first "official" concert with her and her bf Steve Fair- The Talking Heads at the Greek. Her mom and dad were super cool, very different from Jerry & Phyllis and a huge part of my childhood. I found out tonight that she has gotten worse, never fully recovering from the stroke she had and I am clinging to the mental picture of her from my childhood.
I love both Phyllis and Fran and I am not ready to let them go, how do we deal with this harsh slap of mortality? It is with tears in my eyes that I am writing this, I love them both so much and realize that I have been so busy with my own life that I have left too big a gap in time between visits. Please do not make the same mistake... life's too short. I know, sounds cliche but it's sooo true! Hug the ones you love and tell them how much they mean to you.
goodnight.
