My dad died back in 1999 the day before Thanksgiving when flights were at a premium, so his wife said she'd hold the funeral the following week … she lied.  She was a nice Mormon lady looking after herself and 10 kids and wasn’t about to share anything including his funeral, with us.  But my sisters including Janis my stepsister, surprised her when we found out about the ploy and walked into the ceremony.  She about had a heart and tried to kill us with phony kindness.    My kid sister knew where my dad’s house was and wanted to show us … so here it is 8pm the nite of his funeral and we’re sneaking around their house looking in windows – when all of a sudden the light goes on and she pokes her head out the door!  You never saw us scrabble so fast running back to the car and speeding away in our very "inconspicuous" lime green rental car … we were lucky she didn’t call the cops on us!

by Suzi

My mom made it to 80.  She had everything going wrong for her … lung cancer heart disease and COPD.  She really didn’t suffer much and could have fooled us that she was even sick for she always looked and acted like she felt great.  I was privileged to spend her last 3 weeks with her and all 4 of us were there the night before she died.  When we walked away she gave us one of those only in the movies last lingering looks where we all knew it was for the last time.  She died as we were walking down the hall that next morning.  It was like she said “I already said my good-bys … I’m outta here”.

by Suzi