this one is sad
(FYI: I will be at Willamette Writers this weekend here in Portland.)
QUICK NOTE FIRST - I will be at Willamette Writers this weekend here in Portland. Saturday only. Would love to see you if you are there. <3
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Content note: death of a parent
It's been hard to write this post. Hard to tell people. My 11yo had aerial gymnastics in the forest this week (amazing) so I've just roamed the woods, drawing, reading, sitting, talking to friends and family.
She hated having pictures taken of her. Didn't want a memorial. So I'll just list a few things she loved.
Peanut butter cups. Old movies. Agatha Christie. Her family. Her job as a bailiff (not the sort that carries a gun - she was more like a jury coordinator.) Film Noir. Perry Mason. Watching multiple adaptations of the same mystery story to see what they changed (we just did that with Towards Zero). Her neighbors, her street, her place, her family. Alfred Hitchcock. Old Hollywood stills. The yellow sneakers I gave her (she texted me every week to say she'd gotten a new compliment on them.) Talking up her kids (she was always my biggest hype person). Chocolate peanut butter ice cream. Her cats, every single one over the years (but especially the big fluffy boys.) Wordle. (She traded scores everyday with the judge she worked for.) Sunshine. Studying German. (A family language--most of her aunts and uncles still spoke it.) Astounding people with her remarkable memory for birthdays, names, phone numbers, and actors. If you told her your second cousin was getting married today, she would remember it forever and ask about them by name and date. She was our IMDB before we had IMDB, and the person who told us when anyone had an important day going on. Her family, her family, her family.
I'll miss you, mom.
<3 tina