Lulu

I have a neighbor who has become very dear to me over the last few years. Her name is LuAnn, but we just call her Lulu.

My friend Leslie has been living with her and taking care of her for about 3 years now since her husband passed away. Over this time, my family has gotten to know her quite well. We just think that she is one of the greatest people we know. She has MS and can no longer walk, so she has a scooter that gets her from place to place. Pyper thinks that it is the best thing to "ride" Lulu. She hops on the back of the chair, and off they go. Lulu is always such a good sport about it. A couple of weeks ago, we walked to church with her, and Pyper rode the whole way there and back! My kids love to go visit her and play pool in the basement.

She has been so much fun to get to know, and she has taught me some fun things. I have learned how to play Dominoes and the fine art of Rummycube and Triominoes. Last fall when David was gone, we had rousing game nights after I would put my kids to bed at night. I don't know if she will ever know how much it meant to me. I get extremely lonely when David is gone, and this was time that I could be a grownup and just laugh and have fun--believe me, do we ever laugh!

One year, my garden puked tomatoes. They were everywhere! I had so many tomatoes! LuAnn let Leslie and I invade her house and can salsa. The only catch was that we had to make her some chili sauce as well. It actually turned out to be tasty. We all had fun canning away. We had so much fun that we made her some mustard pickles after that!

I also would clean her house once a week. It was 3 hours (that usually turned into 5 because we goofed off so much) that were filled with laughing, stories, discussions about politics, and old show tunes.

I have helped her to put up her Christmas decorations for the past 2 years. We even got her to shake things up a bit and move her Christmas tree to a different spot! She would tell us stories about the decorations and what she did when her kids were young as we decorated. She even knows Santa Clause! He called and made sure that the kids were all being good so that he could come!

Well, recently, she has decided that she is tired of worrying about her house. She has found a very nice assisted living center to move to. I am very excited for her, it will be a good change. There will be fun things for her to do, new friends to make, and exciting adventures to be had. But I have sat here with tears streaming down as I wrote this. (Those who know me will attest that this is a very rare occurrence!) Even though her new place is only a few miles away in Logan, I am really going to miss her being just a couple houses away. It has been a real blessing to be able to get to know her. I can only hope that maybe I have been able to bring a bit of the sunshine into her life that she has brought to mine! I also want her to know that I care for her very much, and am glad that I have the chance to be her friend. Thanks for everything Lulu, you will definitely be missed!

She will probably kill me when she sees this, she HATES that first picture of herself! I smuggled it! But I think that it just shows how much fun and full of life she is!!!