Two women in their mid-70’s I have known and spent time with in the past five years passed away within 24 hours of each another, yesterday and last night.  Linda was a former mill worker, tennis player, someone who loved riding her horses and doing small carpentry projects.  Virginia grew up in Texas and was proud of her Spanish blood that could be traced back to before the American Revolution.  She loved pork tamales that had to come from New Mexico to be good.

I have another friend, David, a 93 year old man who was an aircraft mechanic on the carrier U.S.S. Kearsarge during the Korean War.  After the war he worked for a Pontiac dealer doing auto body work until he had a chance to go to school to learn to be a mortician.  Mortuary Science was just that, a science to him.  We share a love for motorcycles.  He is still breathing but no longer able to talk.  He will be gone within hours.

It has always seemed to me that when an older person passes away, it is like a history book is taken off of a shelf in the library and never returned.