Lily

For reasons I don’t need to go into, Drew had to cancel this year’s Memorial Day weekend barbecue.  Turns out it was all for the best.  When we woke up Sunday morning, it was raining.  No, not raining, pouring.  As in, monsoon season,   Cold, wet, icky day.

So a group of us piled into Drew’s minivan and headed to our favorite sushi restaurant.  Excellent meal, we stuffed ourselves on gyoza, tempura, chicken teriyaki and a variety of sushi rolls (ever try mango avocado?  Peanut avocado?  Soft shell crab roll?)

And on the way home, I pulled out my iPad to look something up...and saw the sad news on Facebook.

Lily passed away Saturday.

You may recall the posts I made about my friend L.  Lily had a rough time of things over the past few years.  First it was complications from diabetes, followed by a cancer diagnosis.  She almost died last January, her daughter was contemplating sending Lily to hospice care, but then she rebounded.

A few weeks ago Drew and I visited her in the nursing home where she’d been living.  She was feeling well that day, the diva holding court in the nursing home dining hall.  

I am so glad we went when we did.

Apparently she took a turn for the worse shortly after that, her daughter said something about pneumonia and sepsis.  

Lily was Juilliard trained, an opera singer and later a music teacher.  A diva, larger than life, but a woman with a heart as large as her personality.

Lily, we will all miss you.