Marie

A view we shared with Marie.

I just heard the sweetest story. I has to do With Marie, our neighbor when I first moved here. We would sometimes call her Annie Oakley 'cause she was a real mountain woman. A hard living rancher who was quite opinionated and not always loved but we got along. We did have words once over my dog but got over it really fast and I enjoyed going for coffee with her and chatting over the fence.

Towards the end of my first winter here, Marie was found dead in her house, she had had a stroke. The fellow who found her was her friend Nolan. He sometimes lived with her, was going to school and delivering mail. He helped her around the place repairing and fixing things up. Her death was a big shock for all of us. A strong, healthy 64 year old.

Nolan decided to return to Minnesota shortly after to help his aging parents. He took Marie's dog along and that was the last I knew of him. Her tomb stone was recently vandalized and I was working with her sibs on what to do next. I went out last Sunday to tidy it up and discovered that someone beat me to it. I just learned it was Nolan. He was here when I was back east. Her dog died and he decided that she should be buried with Marie so he and his girlfriend drove up from Texas to bury her. While there he cleaned up the grave site and made a nice spot for the dog. We're so sorry we didn't get to see him again. He is in his late twenty's but has the mannerisms and speech pattern of a thoughtful, gentle old man. A very fascinating fellow.

I wrote about Marie's burial in my seventh blog - ancient history if you want to read about how wonderful her burial was.

There are some wonderfuly caring and considerate people in our crazy world. Thanks Nolan and I hope to see you again!