Day 7: About Daisies

(i actually wrote this up at work when I wrote the other one up...and was tempted to post something else based on what my sister wrote, but decided i would keep this post for now.)

So, September has not been a good month for me in a few years, especially with out the time to get ready for school. (I honestly miss going to school, and learning things, even if it was the classes which were required but were more than common sense classes.) Also, September was the month my dad passed away.

I am going to try to talk about his death closer to the anniversary, but I also want to try to add some pictures of him, and maybe me and my sister in the post. Since I am having to work a lot in the next two days, I decided to save that when I had more time at my disposal to add the photos, and to reflect on things.

I will probably also reflect on several other people who have died in my life.

Today I would like to dedicate to the memory of one of my friends. I think in the first post I talked about my internship at the prosecutor's office briefly. It was there while I was working there that I met a very dear friend to me. That is her picture above, I had to take a picture of a bookmark she gave me, as her picture isn't online anymore

Her name was Catherine. She was one of the law clerks at the Prosecutor's office. She was about 80, but she was a very lively lady. She was also a lovely and dear lady.

I met her briefly on Orientation. She was working in the file room (where she was most of the time) She was the master of the system there, and could easily help us if a file had gotten misplaced. She was also very good about remembering details of cases, so if there was something you might need from another case to help you write up a case, she was the person to ask.

At the time I met her, she only worked part time, three days aweek.

I remember we would have lunch sometimes together as the days wore on, or have random chats as I was entering files into the computer system. She was knowledgeable about all kinds of things.

While I loved most of the people at the office, Catherine quickly became one of my favorite people. She also told me stories about her life, and was very good about giving advice on work or other issues. I was struggling with my depression at the time, and while I was going to therapy (Yay free psych center from the school.) My therapist had suggested I go on medication, and Catherine helped convince me it was okay to be on medication, that sometimes we all need help in different ways.

Actually her brother had committed suicide, and she understood what it was like to have feelings like that. She was the last push I needed that because you feel that way doesn't meant that you need to suffer by yourself. Just because you go on medication, doesn't mean you are broken. (Sadly, I may have to go back on medication soon, but I don't have any money to go to therapy, so I can have medication prescribed for me.)

Actually Catherine was a person I could inspire to be. She was friendly towards everyone, people felt they could come to her with advice, and she was generous, intelligent, and a lot of other wonderful qualities. her hair was a white/grayish, and was a little longer than shoulder length. She was a little taller than me, and I don't think she weighed more than 100 pounds. Though she looked a little frail, she was always willing to do her share of work.

My birthday happened the day of the Christmas party, and she was actually my secret Santa. She not only got me a Christmas gift I would like the DVD of the movie Ed Wood, one of my favorite movies. She had actually checked several stores to find it. She also gave me this really nice italian charm watch. She included a lot of fun things. One being a charm to represent her which was a black unicorn.

Even after my internship, sometimes I would go downtown and go visit her. We would walk around downtown Muncie, and sometimes go to the coffee shop. Once or twice we randomly walked to the library, so I could return books. Sometimes we would just hang out in her apartment and talk.

After I graduated I would try to write her letters when I could, and sadly as the years went by the letters I wrote her were less and less frequent.

Last year around October I went to wear the watch, and noticed the charm representing Catherine had fallen off. (Sadly, while I love the watch, I don't wear it much because I have a metal allergy.) I hadn't written her as much as I would like.

For Christmas I sent her a card like I had the previous christmas. I was surprised about a week and a half later when the card was back in my mailbox. I wondered if I had forgotten the stamp, as I pulled it off, I saw that the card had been marked deceased.

I did an internet search and found out she had died in October, as I found her obituary in the Muncie Star Press website.

She was a lovely lady. I knew she had been battling cancer, but I thought she had beaten it, She was in remission, apparently, according to the obit, the cancer had come back.

So, the world lost a lovely lady last year.

Luckily though I do have most of the gifts she gave me, though I have lost the watch. She showed me that it was okay to love life.

One of the things i do know exactly where it is, is I bought a copy of the book she had published. (She wrote a second book later which I need to try to find somewhere. This book is actually a children's grammar book) She had given me a discount, and she had signed my copy. It is called About Daisies, and is a journal that she kept several years ago. It is a great book, and it reminds me a little of Walden, as it was at a time when she moved from a big city to a house by herself. It is actually a very fascinating book.

I miss her sometimes. A lot of the time it seems like if someone needs advice they turn for me, and there are only a few people I can go to for advice. She was one of the people, and she made the internship and the last year of college a delight. I always enjoyed visiting with her, either during the internship, or the times I went downtown to see her. I hope day I can inspire people the way she did to try to live to their potential, and also to always make people feel that they are loved and they are special.