Down to Six

Yesterday Kadizzle lost a sister.  Kathleen passed away at noon. That leaves six of us out of the original nine.  Kathleen was taller and bigger than most of us.  When a family squabble would break out among us Kathleen was like Russia.  She was a big country and when she chose a side that side would win.  A fond memory of Kate as she wanted to be called was watching her on the diving board.  The sisters went to the YMCA and did a lot of trampoline work.  Kadizzle tried all the time  to be good on the diving board.  On a good day Kadizzle could do one and a half flips before hitting the water.  Kate was a much better diver and could do some amazing dives.  At the time like every member of the family she was in athletic shape.  Later in life like everyone else she put on some weight.  Always in later life Kadizzle would look at Kate and see her as a shapely diver,  not one afflicted with gravity.

Kadizzle and Kate turned out to be the two writers in the family.  Kate was into history and wrote many articles about West Virginia History, Wheeling History, and also wrote several articles for the West Virginia state magazine.  She ran a blog site for the neighborhood where we grew up.

Our home town of Wheeling, West Virginia had some incredible cemeteries.  The old rich folks had astounding grave markers that today would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Kate did a historic cemetery tour every year with friends.  As part of the tour the guides dressed in period costumes. Kate loved to make costumes.

So last night Kadizzle laid in bed and thought about how we are being picked off.  By no means are we being taking in order.  The original shock was when Colin died at age 49.  That inspired Kadizzle to retire at 50.  Louise who is fourth from the beginning got up in the middle of the night and went to sleep forever on the couch.   Now Kate is gone.  So Melissa the oldest, Tom,  Amy, Suzie, myself, and Patty are still in the game.  No one is looking forward to the next dice roll.