The problem with getting older is that your friends start dying. Today we read the obituary of RoseMarie Garofalo, who was one of my closer friends while I was working at Dr. Schimmel's office. RoseMarie was the office manager and she, midwife Lynn, and I made a trio that did such fun things. I remember one bad day when RoseMarie said she was going to go home and "drink alcohol." I went through our house and put anything that had alcohol in it, from drinks to cleaning products, so medications and brought a big box of alcohol over to her. It cheered her up considerably, and she, Lynn and I had a bit of the more drinkable alcohol too.
RoseMarie had a difficult marriage and when I first knew her, she was adjusting to being divorced. She started dating several men, became a swinging single and drove around town in a fancy red convertible sports car with a personalized license plate.
At the same time, she had a granddaughter she was concerned about because her parents weren't taking care of her and RoseMarie was threatening to take her on. The day I was driving down the road behind a family van, with RoseMarie's personalized license plate on it, I knew that her days as a "swinging single" were over. She raised her granddaughter from infancy to adulthood.
She had a house built, big enough to raise her granddaughter and I loved that while the bedrooms were upstairs, she had a bathroom built downstairs that was perfect for older people, with everything flat. I have often thought of that bathroom in the last couple of years!
She was a great hostess and hosted many office parties.
She left the medical office to run her bookkeeping business. At about the same time Lynn got married and moved to Texas with her husband. Our friendship seemed to die unless Lynn came to town for a visit and then it was like old times. I didn't see RoseMarie for years, but whenever we bumped into each other in town, it was like we'd just seen each other the day before.
RoseMarie was 78 It's so difficult when a friend your age dies and you realize that you don't have much time left yourself.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
PHOTO OF THE DAY
8282
I'm very sorry to hear about your friend, Bev. It sounds like your life was made richer by having RoseMarie in it. We could all hope for that kind of a friend.
ReplyDelete