Fond Memories of Linda
When Linda got braces we were laughing about the fact that she couldn't chew because her mouth was so sore. She went around for a month with these big hunks of wax on her teeth so the wires wouldn't cut her mouth inside. Every time she would smile, all I could see were these big green and blue blobs of wax all over her teeth. Since I was so much vainer than Linda, I told her I would love to have braces, but I didn't want them to show. After she had retired, I received an advertisement that she had cut out of the paper for braces that were invisible. That Linda, even a year later, she remembered me and my vanity.
I remember one time I came to visit Linda. I loved that pink Naugahyde vibrating chair in her living room. I lay in that thing all weekend long, and I know I vibrated off a good ten pounds. Gads, it was ugly, but I sure did love it. We even went looking for one like it for me, but couldn't find anything. That same weekend, as I was leaving, I had commented during my visit about how I loved her 10 foot tall silk ficus tree with the little twinkly lights on it. I had already started the care and was backing out of the driveway so to travel back to Bakersfield when Linda comes running down the stairs with this huge silk tree in front of her, the lights dragging behind. She said, "here take this, it will look better in your house than it does in mine." I have that tree in the corner of my living room. Every time I turn on the lights, I think of Linda running down the stairs, dragging that big tree that was twice as big as she was.
One weekend, they were having this killer sale at Nordstrom Rack in Redondo Beach. She came to work the next week with three dresses that she thought I would love. They all fit perfectly.
Linda and I were always sharing verses in the Bible that were pertinent for whatever we were going through. She was my best friend when it came to sharing our Love of the Lord. I remember when she told me she had cancer. I cried more that day than she did. She had a peace about dying. We talked a lot about her treatment, and how to pray. We would go out on the balcony here at work, and start out the day with a few words to get us going. She was a trooper. She would come in some days and I knew she didn't feel well. She didn't always have time to put on her makeup. I told her one day, "gads, girlfriend, go put on some makeup." She came back with her makeup intact, lipstick on, and her "Blinkers" (mascara, as she called her made-up eyes). She was stunning.
The most memorable thing about Linda that we all recall here at the health department was Linda's uncanny memory for detail. You could mention something in passing that would seem insignificant to so many, and she would come back months later and ask you how it was going. She never forgot anything that was important to someone else, no matter how trivial you might think it had been. She was the most compassionate, sincere, God loving woman I have ever met. I loved her so much.
I know God has a special place for people like Linda. She didn't have a mean bone in her body. Probably the one thing I remember that stands out the most significantly about Linda was her laugh. She would start laughing and she couldn't stop. I can't tell you how many times we would laugh till we cried.
I ran across a saying written by Orison Swett Marden. It goes something like this: "Joyfulness keeps the heart and face young. A good laugh makes us better friends with ourselves and everybody around us." Linda was truly a good friend.
Sharon Sullivan