There’s no better way to get rid of the blues than looking at a blue sky! Today is the first day in a week that I woke up to one and it is a very welcome sight.

For the last week, Winona and surrounding towns have been deluged with sheets of rain at least once a day. Over the week-end many areas contended with five to over eleven inches of rain in just a few hours. As a result of the storms, many area homes were completely lost and many area businesses suffered damage that is near irreparable. Last Saturday night Winona was hit with a storm so strong that the rain formed currents of water that literally coursed down the sidewalks and streets of the town.

My friend, Suzanne, missed all the excitement. The day before the storm, Friday, was the day Suzanne finally gave in to the intruder that violated her body and coursed through her internal organs like a torrent of rain. Friday, my friend died of cancer. Although she wasn’t a smoker, her cancer started as a small, microscopic cell in her lungs. It was first detected in her liver and eventually metastasized and sent over a dozen of its wayward children to her brain. Still, Suzanne was a fighter. The medical community gave her just six months to live, but she prevailed through nearly two years of radiation, chemotherapy, and homeopathic treatments… until last Friday.

I didn’t see much of my friend these last few months. Should I have called and disturbed her when she was sleeping or should I have just dropped by, even though she may have been unprepared to receive visitors? At the time the choices were too hard to make so I took the easy way and chose to do nothing. Today I feel guilty as I enjoy the blue sky that Suzanne didn’t get the chance to see.

Today I’m left with enjoying the blue sky and hoping that wherever Suzanne is, she can look down and forgive me. I’m hoping that wherever she is, she is enjoying blue skies today.

for my friend, Sara

• The fairest flower in all the garden
• Is s/he who patiently waits
• Along the path with gloves in hand
• Until you approach the gate;

• Who kneels with you and at your side
• Will diligently help you weed
• And rake and water and prune and hoe—
• Whatever is your need.

• Who will share with you the beauty
• When the day is at its end.
• The fairest flower in all the garden
• Is s/he who is your friend.