Barbara J. Hamby

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Bon Voyage, Shirley

This has not been a very productive day. I spent the morning in an urgent care clinic getting a young woman doctor and a lab test to confirm what I already knew. I have a bladder infection. More of a nuisance than a malady, a week of antibiotics should knock it out of my system.

I came home to find an email confirming another certainty. I already knew that I was losing my dear friend of sixty plus years; I just didn’t know the exact day and hour the end would come. She died last night after her family returned from her grandson’s wedding. I celebrate her life. She left behind a very large, loving family, as well as a group of grieving, close friends.

My favorite story about her life began when we were in high school. She spent a lot of time at our house and enjoyed being among my three sisters and me. She had lost one of her two sisters who had married a serviceman and died giving birth to their first child, who also died.

She said to my mother, I don’t know how you do it, I will never have four daughters.” She lived to eat those words, but they were dessert for her. She enjoyed her daughters and particularly enjoyed her grandchildren.

At her instigation, several years ago, she and another high school friend and I took our daughters (six in all) on a cruise from Seattle to Vancouver and Victoria, B.C. It was the second trip for The Radiance of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship. We enjoyed all the amenities of a longer cruise. At lunch one day, the three mothers were reminiscing and laughing so loudly that most of the daughters deserted us. It was an experience that all of our daughters will always remember. My daughter mentions it often.

So, bon voyage Shirley, may this last journey bring you peace and joy.