Ode to PatsyBee

Over the course of my 40+ years on this planet, I have been blessed with a wide variety of wonderful friends. Since moving to Wisconsin, one of the best was my neighbor Pat (aka PatsyBee). Pat was in her late 70s when we met, but she was the original poster child for being "young at heart." She attended the same church as I and was actually introduced to me as "the coffee lady" because she was in charge of coffee hour. (In Wisconsin, I soon discovered, coffee hour doesn't just mean hot java and danish. It also means cheese and sausage! LOL)

Upon hearing where I had moved to, I remember Pat remarking that we were neighbors, as she lived only half a block away. To my utter shame, I also recall thinking to myself, oh great, just what I need is some "old lady" pestering me. Or words to that effect. Well, as it turned out, nothing could have been further from the truth.

To put it succinctly, Pat was a hoot! She was a retired home economics teacher who loved to cook, entertain, watch British comedies, and drink straight brandy on the rocks in huge tumblers. More than once I left her house so blasted that I was damn glad she lived so close! She was never happier than when she was grocery shopping (a task I detest) and the most fun I have ever had in a grocery store was when I was with her.

Pat was hip too, and liked to keep up with the latest trends and TV shows. She was a major fan of The Sopranos, Sex in the City and Six Feet Under. But what I really loved about her was the fact that she was a lady and never had an unkind word to say about anyone. She was always upbeat and joking around, even when her health started to fail and things were not going well for her. As a mutual friend has often remarked, "I never had a bad time when I was with Pat."

As a former schoolteacher, Pat was well known in town and on Halloween her house was always a busy stop for all of the trick-or-treaters, many of whom were accompanied by their parents who were her former students. Halloween is my favorite holiday and it was a blast handing out candy at Pat's house, especially since we usually had a little brandy beforehand. ;-)

I am going to leave this for now and finish it tomorrow, gentle readers. Sleep well.


Leap Day editor's note:
OK, so I'm something of a procrastinator. ;-) I will finish it soon. So there!