Goodbye Friend

Today was the first morning in a long time that my alarm woke me up before my bladder did.  I seem to have a consistent problem where I wake up sooner than planned where my bladder is telling me it's time to go.  Is this a sign of getting older?  

I wanted to talk a little bit about a childhood friend of mine.  For quite a few years she was my best friend.  We were almost inseparable.  I was in fourth grade and she was in third grade when we met.  As soon as that tall red head stepped on the school bus she greeted me as if we had known each other for years.  She was sweet, kind and purely innocent.  Unfortunately, her life at home was one of the worst experiences I had ever seen.  Her father was in jail and her mother was barely present.  Thankfully, the girls had a loving grandmother who was the glue that kept the household together, until she died many years later.  Sherri and I spent a lot of time in each other's homes, even though her home gave me an uneasy feeling.  When I was going into eighth grade and she was getting ready to start junior high I moved to Pennsylvania.  We kept in touch by phone and the next summer she visited for a week.  In her eighth grade year she met a man much older and she became pregnant and dropped out of school.  This man was no good for her, I can tell you that.  She had a second daughter with him.  After that we lost touch but then reconnected years later on Facebook.  Actually, I connected with her little sister first.  

Sherri's life spiraled downhill as she got older.  I don't want to get into too many details and be as respectful as possible.  It just wasn't good.  She had a total of eight children, all that were no longer in her custody.  A few days ago I found out from her sister that she had passed away over the weekend.  They did not have the details as the police were investigating but I can only take a guess as to what happened.  I won't say it out loud.  All that matters is she lost a battle that she fought for years.  I can only pray for the children she leaves behind.  

I took this picture from her sister's Facebook.  I had some pictures from our early childhood days but have lost them.  Her life just did not bring her any hope but it's my wish she is now at peace.

In other news, my job is going well.  It's been exactly one week since I started.  It's an easy quick trip in the morning and afternoon.  The space in between I use for housecleaning.  I've been spending some time in our rec room area today brainstorming and coming up with ideas to make this a more useable and fun space for the kids and their friends.  There's so much squished in this room and a lot of it is toys that are barely touched anymore.  I have the plan in mind but now I have to execute it into reality.  One step at a time.