Saying good bye to a sweet friend….

Saying good bye to a sweet friend…. 

We have all said it .. one time or another… way too many times…..

“we got to get together for lunch…  or coffee.. or in this case tea.”

I did go see my friend a couple of times.. One time before her husband passed.. A couple times after …. But definitely not enough times. I know the road goes both ways.. but still.  

I met Toni by the way of social media.. we both wrote blogs and we were involved with a blog run by Spokane Review with Dave Oliveria head of it.

She wrote a blog about cats.. Called something about Calico Cats..  She also had a side of an old blog she did before.. which was about Idaho. All kinds of pictures and she even did poems. 

I wrote a blog of off beat humor about myself and life. And sometimes a soapbox. 

One time another blogger and a friend, met Toni and I at a restaurant and we follow her down the back roads to her house. She told us to follow her, she knew a shortcut…  which was funny as we got half way there, and there was a huge road construction going on.. so we idled by.. She apologize profusely when we got at her house.  What a beautiful home. In tune with wildlife surrounding.  She and her husband had built it. By a creek.

After that Toni and I did most of our conversations on line, by emails. It was before Facebook.  And later we kept in touch by Facebook..mostly by Facebook Messenger. 

We had many sometimes, late night conversations.  Especially when Ron got sick. It was a trying time for Toni.  One only had to visit their home one time and could feel the love the two of them had for each other.  They did a lot in life besides raise 3 great kids.  I had met one of her son’s as he visit one of our neighbors.   Toni use to help Ron build home is Bonner County. She was his right hand man. They camped a lot and she went hunting with Ron. So his health issues were hard times. Ron worried about Toni, as much as she worried about him.  It was really hard when he passed 

She also had wild cats that she watched over. Building boxes with blankets for winter time..  Toni was a CAT LADY….. I think even she would admit and be proud of such a name.  She loved them so much she volunteered at the animal shelter.  Taking care of the cats, Photographing them for newspaper articles and ads for the Animal Shelter.   Adding some tidbits about the cars and dogs.  It was hard on her when there were some major changes at the shelter. Some that she thought were not right for the animals.. cats..  But she hung in there .. and then her health went sour again.

She fought it out with cancer several times.   She was a tough lady.  But if you ever saw her… you would see a tiny woman. With a huge smile.

Going to miss you my friend… and kick myself, for not doing a better job of being a friend who stopped by for tea.   God Bless.. I know you are surrounded by all your fur babies.. and in the arms of your Ron..  A great place to be, especially as the world is turning now..   A conversation you and I had many times..  Wish I could have hugged you one more time...

UPDATE..  if you like the looks of the blog decor...  I have to tell you..  Toni helped me do this many years ago..  after hours..  of emailing back and forth.. (no facebook messenger at that time) and I am thinking a lot of frustration on Toni's part as she tried to get thru her thick headed friend.. (me) but we did get it done..  THANK YOU TONI..