| During another sleepless night I found myself downstairs at my laptop grabbing a load of email. Among them was a sad and shocking one, my first husband, John Charles Penney died. We got married in the most lovely "Herbfarm" over near Snoqualmie and the infamous "Gilman Village". I was just showing Kim some photos the other day of the wedding as we were working the closet. Since our divorce /separation, we were in touch enough for me to know that every once in a while I'd get a note or call, email or snail mail, a postcard or birthday card, or xmas note, even a photo or two ... fairly regularly. I'd always get an update and hear from him sporadically. The last one I received was John sending me a note, with some personal items of moments we shared like when we were at St George Utah prior to our wedding. He had told me before this missive full o' goodies, that he had prostate cancer and was "on the clock", but beyond the initial shock, it never truly kicked in as a truth for me. John was instrumental, on so many levels, in who, how and where I am today.
But for John, I would not have been here in the GNL [great north left], and my life would have been so very different - only a parallel universe knows if my lot would have been better or worse. So many forks in the proverbial road(s) not taken - or more specifically, the roads I took. I'll have to scrounge up a snap of John to share. He was a force of personality and nature, and I will not go into more detail than that -- but let's say that he was a "person who had latent anthropology tendencies" . I can tell you that I was proud that I was THE person who finally had John open a credit card at J C Penney's !!! That was a hoot. The person opening it got a tad nervous - go figure . I also recall that during our first meetings, John would not look me in the eyes, well, truth be known, no one in the eyes, and after I later "called him on that" he made a conscious effort to correct it. He did it, that's John's strength of will. John was a good businessman, and a strong person with street smarts. He hails from Everett MA, and his ancients from Newfoundland. Internally, John was full of contradictions, and I'm a "faux-therapist who also likes to make things better", so using 20/20 hindsight, it is so not surprising that we got together. [Another good moment we had is on Blewitt Pass in WA.] We lived on English Hill in Redmond WA. I loved that house - he and I fixed it up so it was lovely and homey. We had "two cats in the yard"...as the song goes, and a fence that Cassie would walk to hunt down squirrels. John honestly loved the kitties, pure unconditional love. He even grabbed the ladder one dusky evening and climbed up to get our "stuck on the roof" kitty [those cats were never stuck , only in our own minds]. Cassie and Yoko were kitties that found me via John Painter, formerly of New Hampshire, who had kittens en route from NH to WA. He was a "DEC consultant" that seemed to have a pretty stable job even during lay-offs. One day, posted on John Painter's cubicle, there were poloroids of his "free kittens" [there are NO free kittens LOL], and people at DECWest (lovingly known as DECWet) put their names under the snap of the kits they wanted. I chose one of Cassie's sisters at first, but when I saw Miss C(K)iss, I knew she was the one, and then, Miss Yoko did the cutest thing...she crawled up my sleeve at the wrist end, and, the rest as they say, is history. This was the beginning of my having "multiple kitties" in my life! They were amazing girls. Very brilliant and clever girls. Both of them knew Zach and took him in PDQ! I miss them so. As I get older, and more in pain, hence more "static", when someone leaves this planet, So much of my life exits, along with the shared memories, with them. I do recall, fun times with JCP along with sadness, such as the night that John was "sawing wood", and the then little kitten, Cassie, put her head in his mouth to check it out further -- LOL, that was a very good moment for us, some unbridled, unchecked, laughter. He was a strong strong presence on this planet, and in my life, and yet in many ways had so far to grow. John did "carpe diem" but when we started to date, some of the emphasis changed, I'd like to think for the "better", for him, his growth and goals. Did I mention he was my boss at DECWest? LOL. Truly, beware internal dating, and you should never date the boss - that's my .02 fer free on that one. John, you left a big ol' black hole in the universe when you "passed" this past Wednesday, October 17th. I miss you, but I guess you know that having been a student? nay, master of the human psyche, eh?
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