LuAnn, our friend 7-28-09

Today is a sad day as we learned from her daughter, Kathy, that our wonderful friend and travel companion, LuAnn, passed away last night after a long battle with stomach cancer. I spoke with Lu last Tuesday before we moved to the Shoshone River where there is no cell contact. She, as always, was cheery and interested in what others were doing despite her discomfort. To the end she lived life with enthusiasm. We are lucky to have had her as a friend for the past thirty four years. We will miss her.

I knew the day I met her that we would be friends for life. There was a beautiful house, nestled in the woods, just a mile from our house many years ago. I had always been curious about that house. One day, when Scott was in the second grade, he got off the bus and announced that he had a new girl in his class named Kathy and that she had just moved into that house. So, being the quiet, shy thing that I am, I packed him into the car and went down to welcome them to the neighborhood. Okay, I admit it, I was just plain curious about that house! I was greeted at the door by LuAnn, barefoot, with 4 rug rats behind her, age 7 and under. She didn't hesitate to invite me in for a cup of tea and some always homemade goodies. It didn't matter that there was a bit of chaos around us. She had a new person to meet. I was in her lair. That was the beginning of a long, wonderful, friendship.

LuAnn was a shopper. I was not. She never missed a midnight sale. She called me one morning at 6 a.m. to announce that I was now the proud owner of a MixMaster. She had picked one up the night before for a song and had just come home. I still have that MixMaster and think of her at Thanksgiving every year as I mash my potatoes. How did she know I needed one? I bet there were four other friends who got that same call that morning. If one was a bargain, five was even a better bargain. She had a closet in her house that could attest to that. If you needed a shower or wedding gift Lu's closet was the place to shop!

Her curiosity was insatiable. We often traveled the same roads and she would ask if I had seen this new house going up or that new color someone had put on their shutters. I don't think she ever had her eyes on the road when she drove. I never could find all the things she had seen.

After we moved west she became my road trekking partner. Ron was not a born road trekker until the GPS was invented so I had to look to other sources for my odysseys. I could call LuAnn and ask her if she wanted to go look at some rare ants crossing the road in Utah and she'd say, "I'll pack and be on the way." Her enthusiasm for life was contagious. She was a great travel companion. There was no such thing as a wrong turn, ever! Every road had some kind of adventure waiting for us.

We were standing at the edge, and I do mean the unguarded edge, of the Grand Canyon one full moon night around midnight. After standing there for a few minutes Lu said, "You know, someone could come up behind us and push us over and we'd never be heard from again." That did it - the hair came up on the backs of our necks and we ran like crazy through the woods back to the motel. A thrill, a chill, and a few laughs!

I gathered together a few AZ friends a few years ago to join Lu and me on a trip to Mexico. Nogales, that is. Lu wanted to be able to say she'd been to a foreign country. We were going to shop till we dropped with all the great bargains down there. When we crossed the border to come home the only thing any of us had to declare was a supply of Premarin. If I'm 50 now, I must have been 30 then. You think? After we returned home we hopped a plane for San Franciso where we picked up a shiny, red convertible. We put the top down (it was freezing but neither of us would admit it), turned up the tunes, and headed up the coastal highway to Bodega Bay to pick up our former MD neighbor, Sandy. Thelma, Louise and company on the road to Yosemite, Monterrey, Carmel....... What fun we had and what great memories Sandy and I have.

We hit the road in 2006 with our new RV and the first person we wanted to invite to join us was Lu. Actually, we knew she would be the only person crazy enough to accept such an offer. She traveled with us for five weeks in 06 and then she did the same in 07.



She loved her "cubby" as she called it.


She never missed a chance to give Ron the raspberries. Nothing was sacred. I loved that! Ron, two women, and two dogs. What a sport he was.



She loved Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, Glacier,....




and the Canadian Rockies.


We were listening to a Ranger talk at Jenny Lake in the Grand Teton National Park and he had the fur pelts of the animals he was discussing with him. I could see the twinkle in Lu's eyes - she just couldn't hold back. She asked him if we could try them on. He said, "Why no one has asked me that before but I don't see why not." So...Lu became a mountain lion and I, a bear. Ron, embarrassed, took a picture or two and then faded into the background. No way did he want to be associated with those two women.

She loved meeting people and would scour the campgrounds for interesting folks and drag them back to meet us and show them our RV. We were on the "real estate tour".
When they didn't come back with her she would fill us in on all the info she had gathered and then say, "Isn't that interesting?" Ron thought she was nuts. Of course, I found it fascinating.

She would yell, "Stop, stop" while I was driving if she saw something new for the first time. The first time she did it I almost had a stroke. She got mad at me when I tried to explain that I can't just stop in the middle of the road. From then on she would sing, "Home, home on the range, where the deer and the antelope play...where always is heard a discouraging word...you get the idea! I remember the exact spot in Yellowstone where she did that to me for the first, but not last, time. Every time I go by there I laugh.

One day she was trying to tell me an elk's ears were wiggling but she came out with "twiggling" instead. Elk are now known as "Twigglers" in our world and everytime I see one I think of Lu.


In my life I've only known one person who would ever consider putting car stickers on their car. That's Lu. We searched for car stickers everywhere we went. She wanted everyone to know what fun she was having. What a spirit!

We would often just sit outside, surrounded by beautiful scenery, and say how lucky we were to be there. She understood that it's not about the past or the future. It's about today - now! She loved life!

Most of all she loved her family. She was so proud of all of them. Each time we talked she filled me in on her wonderful grandchildren. She felt so lucky to have her children with her through these difficult times.

And....she loved her friends and so appreciated all the care they were giving her till the end. Their care was exceptional, but then Lu was an exceptional friend.


So, Lu, we will miss you terribly. You've filled our memories with happy thoughts and that's where we will dwell.



We wish everyone a friend like our friend, Lu.