One summer morning my best friend and I sat on my stoop. There was a moving van on the block and we were anxious to get a look at our new neighbors. We saw a woman, and a small girl, and then we saw a boy around our age. My friend was busy giggling because the boy’s ears were slightly pointed. Then I saw him. Tall, dark and handsome, the most beautiful human being I had ever seen. I was 8 years old, and it was love at first sight.

They moved in right next door to me. There was a small alley that separated our buildings and from my bedroom window I could look across the alley directly into his. I would peek through the blinds and watch him as he sat on his bed and played his guitar.

He knew how I felt about him, but he was 3 years older than I was. When I entered junior high, he was entering high school. I remember the night he told me he thought I was pretty. I was 12, he was 15, and he said that when we got older, our age difference wouldn’t matter any more. That night I decided that I wanted to marry him.

By the time I was 16, I became more realistic about marrying him, but decided instead that he was the one I would lose my virginity to. I began trying to get his attention. I would open the blinds and stand in front of the window in my baby doll pajamas, hoping that he would see. I knew what time he came home from band practice at night, and would just happen to be outside walking my dog so I could talk to him.

Finally it worked and we began dating. When I was seventeen we planned our special night. My friend’s parents were going away for the weekend, so went to her house. He brought a bottle of champagne, and he sang Eagles songs, it was very romantic. Then he picked me up and carried me up the stairs. It was a magical evening that I’ll never forget.

About 2 weeks after I got married I was released from the hospital. I was still very week, but I was finally able to hold down food. My husband would pack a lunch for me in a cooler and place it by the bed so I didn’t have to try to walk to the kitchen.

A couple of weeks later my daughter came home from staying with my sister in PA and went back to school. By then I was well enough to get out of bed in the morning and go to my chair in the living room and have breakfast with her. I have a special lift chair, it’s an electric recliner and the back lifts up off the floor to help you get out of it.

One morning on my way to the living room, with no warning I got this overwhelming feeling that something was terribly wrong. I felt my body shutting down and I remember thinking, “Oh no, God, please not now, not yet.” I managed to say “call 911”. And then I collapsed. It was 7:20am

I woke up 3 days later in the hospital. I had had a heart attack, my lung had collapsed and I had been on a respirator. It seems another miracle had occurred. I was okay. My daughter had called 911, she would have left for school at 8:00, so if I had the heart attack any time after that she would have come home from school to find me dead.

 

Last Halloween in her 50's costume.

Here's a poem she wrote about being an adolescant:

Changes

She was happy and she was normal

But soon things started to change

Everything went wrong

Life began to rearrange

So while nobody was looking

When they all looked away

She hid by herself

And there she will stay

Her pale face says she's fine

But it deceives her friends

In truth her heart is breaking

A rope with fraying ends

I just want her to know

That she is not alone

And a short author bio: She is fourteen years old and lives in Florida with parents and stepparents. She writes poetry and short stories in her spare time. Her biggest influences are her mother, her father, and her friends. Her poem is dedicated to anyone who feels alone in the world. Remember that you always have someone there for you even if it feels like you don't. To the world you might be one person, but to one person you might be the world.

This is my first Father’s Day without my Dad, he passed away last July. He lived in NY and I live in FL, but I used to go up to see him every summer, except the one year that I was too sick and he came down here to see me.

Last year I saw him in the hospital, 2 weeks before he died. I am so glad I got to say goodbye in person, and I tell him what a wonderful father he has been.

I look like my mother, but I am so like my father, quiet and easy going. That’s where I got my love of sweets. Toward the end of his life he became a diabetic, but refused to give up desserts, he just figured he would take more insulin to balance it at.

He was always the voice of reason in my crazy family and I miss him a lot.

Today I had lunch with a couple of friends including my best friend. I have known her for 12 years and we have been through a lot together.

We first met when she was my supervisor at work. One evening on the way home, my car broke down and she was right behind me, so she stopped and called her husband who used to be a mechanic. He worked on the car and then they followed me home to make sure I got there alright. My husband invited them to stay for dinner and we all became friends. She helped me so much when I got divorced.

She had married her high school sweetheart and after a few years they started trying to have a baby. They tried for 5 years. Then her husband (a cop) got a young waitress from the coffee shop pregnant and left my best friend to live with her. So it was my turn to help her through her divorce.

Then she started dating someone and after 2 years got pregnant while on the pill. So at 36 she finally had her first baby. She is so cute and I loved playing with her today.