"WELL, THERE!"
She was only forty-six........
Once upon a time there was a very sweet little girl who was born when I was only six years old. She became just like my little sister though they moved away for awhile. Valerie was an exact replica of Shirley Temple but with blond hair. Her mother is my dear sister, Jean.
My neice was an integral and very special part of our family. My parents loved her as if she were their very own daughter; and she them. Her "Gram and Gramp" meant the whole world to her.
A wonderful sense of humour and a unique beauty all her own, she charmed everyone with-in sight. Popular and always game for anything, she could have had any profession she chose to have. She chose motherhood.
Unfortunately, neither marriage worked and she struggled with two children, lack of a full education or a career. We watched as she survived on limited means and yet, she was always up-beat and cool. Everyone adored her!
But inside, our Valerie was struggling with her own demons and felt she needed the stimuli of alcohol and cigarettes to deal the hand she'd been dealt. That was her coping mechanism and they failed her every time.
She'd often make me laugh aloud by one of her favourite sayings. When she could think of nothing else to say, she'd say "Well, there!"
A Goldie Hawn look-a-like, she could choose from any men around but she chose solitary confinement. After many failed attempts at sobriety and to overcome annorexia, Valerie slowly succumbed to her demons and left us.
She died in May, 2001, taking many broken hearts with her. The month of May always comes with a sense of loss for me, in that I will never ever forget how my world crashed the day the phone rang in my home in Georgia. "Hed, Val's dead."
She was only forty-six.
"Well, there!"
She was only forty-six........
Once upon a time there was a very sweet little girl who was born when I was only six years old. She became just like my little sister though they moved away for awhile. Valerie was an exact replica of Shirley Temple but with blond hair. Her mother is my dear sister, Jean.
My neice was an integral and very special part of our family. My parents loved her as if she were their very own daughter; and she them. Her "Gram and Gramp" meant the whole world to her.
A wonderful sense of humour and a unique beauty all her own, she charmed everyone with-in sight. Popular and always game for anything, she could have had any profession she chose to have. She chose motherhood.
Unfortunately, neither marriage worked and she struggled with two children, lack of a full education or a career. We watched as she survived on limited means and yet, she was always up-beat and cool. Everyone adored her!
But inside, our Valerie was struggling with her own demons and felt she needed the stimuli of alcohol and cigarettes to deal the hand she'd been dealt. That was her coping mechanism and they failed her every time.
She'd often make me laugh aloud by one of her favourite sayings. When she could think of nothing else to say, she'd say "Well, there!"
A Goldie Hawn look-a-like, she could choose from any men around but she chose solitary confinement. After many failed attempts at sobriety and to overcome annorexia, Valerie slowly succumbed to her demons and left us.
She died in May, 2001, taking many broken hearts with her. The month of May always comes with a sense of loss for me, in that I will never ever forget how my world crashed the day the phone rang in my home in Georgia. "Hed, Val's dead."
She was only forty-six.
"Well, there!"
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