Linda Lucille Reed Evatt - R.I.P.

Last week, Linda,  my oldest and best friend died.  We had known each other literally all our lives.  Our parents were friends. We went all through school together, kindergarten, elementary school, Junior High, High School and College.  As children, we attended tap and ballet classes.  The summer after the sixth grade, we attended Camp Joyzelle for six weeks.  I hated it, she loved it. That was one of the few things we disagreed about.

Both of our fathers were doctors and our mothers were nurses. When her father died, she spent a few days at my house and she spent time with me when mine died.  When my mother had cancer and was undergoing radiation therapy, we were away at college, so her mother asked mine to come and stay with her so she could nurse my mom. 

I introduced her to her future husband, and they were married exactly one week after my husband and I were.  We even married men with the same first name. After that, when we spoke, it was "my Don or your Don."

Her husband went into the Air Force right out of college, and was stationed for a time at the Pentagon, and she found a job there, too, working with some of the first computers. Room-sized ones.  She was 'way smarter than I was - brilliant, in fact.  For that matter, so was her husband. When he got out of the Air Force, they moved to Conway, where he was a CPA, and she worked with him as his secretary/receptionist

 After she had been married for several years, she was finally told by her doctors that, due to being hit by a car when she was very young, breaking her pelvis, she would probably never have children.  So, she and her husband decided to adopt.  They waited a long time, and then one day, when she got home from seeing her doctor and getting the happy news that she was pregnant, the agency called that she and Don could pick up their adoptive baby the next day.  She told the woman at the agency that she had just found out she was pregnant, and after a lot of thought, they decided to pass on the adoption.  The agency said they would keep her name at the top of the list until she was sure nothing was going to happen with her pregnancy. 

Her son, Bob, was born and grew up to be a very talented writer, and he was smarter than me, too.  He was the most curious boy I have ever met - full of questions. He was so smart that he frightened his teachers, and
they couldn't keep him from getting bored.  But, he came into his own when he was able to spend six months at Oxford University. 

He is now happily married, and working for the Tulsa World. 

Linda had a long and interesting life, and we shared all of her adventures, hopes, fears, sadness and happiness with each other, through long letters, phone calls, and, finally e-mails. After her husband died, she made a new life for herself, and became a licensed genealogist. As with everything else she attempted, she was very successful at it. She even got me interested in it, although I will never have the patience she had, or the interest in all that research.

As you might imagine, I have been taking a long, long trip down memory lane for the past week. It's going to take me a long time to get used to having such a big hole in my life. In other words I'm feeling pretty sorry for myself. And, I keep asking myself, "Now, who am I going to talk to?" 

I'll miss her.

Stay tuned.