Goodbye Ruby

I took off Friday morning for The Woodlands, TX, just two-and-a-half hours away from home, to participate in a memorial service for my long-time friend, Ruby. I've blogged about Ruby before. She was my penpal from the age of ten. I lived in Alaska; she lived in Texas. We finally met when I went to Texas for college. We both married and both had baby boys, but a couple years later I lost track of her.

Our second son was born soon after, and life became very busy for our little family. We subsequently moved from Alaska to Oregon. Twenty years later we moved back to Alaska, and five years later we moved to New Mexico. All that time I wondered where Ruby was and if I would ever find her again. In 2007, having had no contact with Ruby for over 30 years, I determined to locate her, if possible. By that time I had spent a year working for a private investigator and had learned some "tricks of the trade" in conducting searches for people. My efforts were successful, and I was surprised to learn that Ruby and her husband, Dave, lived just minutes away from where Chris, Kelsey and Clara lived (Robert hadn't yet been born). It made it easy to stop and see her and her husband, Dave, when we went to see our family. Coincidentally, her daughter and family lived in Albuquerque, where we lived, so when she came our way, we met up again!

Ruby and me - December 2007

It was 1959 when we first started writing - 61 years ago! That's a long friendship, so I was really saddened to learn that she passed away around Christmas time. Her memorial service was on Friday, January 17, and I felt drawn to be there. I'm grateful that I went. I learned new things about her and heard so many loving memories. Ruby is already being missed by many people.