It is with deep sadness in my heart that I write this blog. 2021 was the last blog posted here.
Please forgive my lack of content and I promise to try and do better.
As the title reflects my heart is sad today as we have just returned from a very quick and
mostly unexpected trip to NY state where we laid to rest one of my dearest and longest friend relationships.
What can I say about Ruthann? We met at Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in 1977 or around there, My family was new to the church and she befriended us right away. Ruthann never knew a stranger, her infectious smile made you feel at ease right away.
She loved Jesus and everybody knew it, she didn't hide anything, she gave her all to her church, family and friends. 40+ years, who has friendships that last that long, not many people, this was a true friendship.
My family and I moved away and when you have a true friend like Ruthann, distance doesn't matter. While I lived in Florida she made a trip to visit us and we had a great time catching up. In between we would catch up by phone calls, this was way before we had texting, Facebook or any social media.
Ruthann met Bruce and moved to Canada, still our communication continued.
Life happened to us all and 10 years in Canada she moves back to USA, Rexford, NY. I was still in Florida and was able to make a trip to NY. Ruthann is like good healthy Celtic salt, flavorful and good for you. I have to interject here a minute and give kudos to Bruce as well, he kept me in coffee, as we all know Ruthann was not and never was a coffee drinker, so Bruce made coffee each morning and in the afternoon he would go to Stewarts and buy us both coffee.
Skipping forward to 2019, I met and married Nathan and we started our journey in RV living, one of the first places we visited was Ruthann and Bruce. She had made a huge sign welcoming RTS(Romancing The States)our RV. I could go on and on but our last encounter was May 2023, Ruthann and Bruce spent her birthday with us in Ohio, and she made me a beautiful spring wreath for our front door, she was quite the crafter. I have so many good memories with Ruthann that it was take many many pages to write. I must say I turned Ruth Ann onto the Marco app(my mistake? Or was it?) I now have many wonderful videos I can look back on with a smile and perhaps a tear or two because her last Marco was on the morning of the day she passed into the arms of Jesus, here's what her message was "Just a quick Hi, nothing exciting, ice chips and drinking lemonade, and ginger ale, clear stuff, that's about it, just wanted to say Hi, love you guys, bye". She usually ended her Marco's with "Bye, for now", but not this time, this time she just said "bye". I still feel significance
in the "Bye for now" because it says to me we will meet again one day, this is not the end.
My husband and I knew we had to make the trip to Ruthann's "celebration" to honor her and our long term friendship, it was worth the 16 hour drive(to and from).
Ruthann planned her "going away" celebration down to the last detail. My husband often said she was like the energizer bunny, she filled every moment of every day not wasting one second! I thank God that we had such beautiful times together in the last 4 years. Nothing prepares you for losing a loved one. When her and Bruce visited us in May 2023, she planned all our activities, making a wreath, doing tied dyed tee shirts, we took them for drives to the country, had lunch at little out of the way places, went to church, stopped at Golden Corral Buffet, so many things we crammed in to their 5 day stay.
I have to stop here because there are so many happy and fun times we shared it would take a book to write. We have videos on our YouTube channel called Romancing The States, if you care to watch some, more specifically the Lake George video was super fun.
I will post what I can here so you can see our friend!
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