Memories and memorials

One of the sale items from Orchid Lane that the moms and I go to every year. Size: One size fits most. Usually does not apply to me. Don't worry, my hair will be fixed Tuesday assuming my hair dresser doesn't go into labor.

Cleome from last week. Now this area is totally covered with them

Gerber daisy from a week ago. Now there are 4 blossoms.

My lone clematis.

Some morning glory blossoms among the double cosmos.

Hand dyed silk scarf from Art Fair

The patio before the heat wave

Dave's beautiful house sits on top of a steep hill. His property drops down sharply towards the river. A stream with several portions turning into waterfalls snakes through his land down to a fish pond below. Inside, the house could be featured in House Beautiful. We had to park quite  far away as so many came to honor his memory yesterday. It was a reunion of sorts with former co-workers from the early days attending.

One of his co-workers that I had informed of Dave's death came a week early. Didn't I say the 23rd? He returned yesterday wearing a 1987 t-shirt with acid holes from the lab. (it was a t-shirt he received for volunteering for the race I helped organize). Ah chemists...we can be so strange. Another guest was a woman who I had played softball with and hadn't seen since. I do not know what possessed me to play as I am the worst player that there is. I can not throw or bat. And as I was either pregnant or nursing for the 2 seasons I played, I couldn't even do what I can do, run. And I am not a sprinter. But I sort of enjoyed the camaraderie of the women and Steve was off with his own team. I was surprised to find a soccer mom there..what? She has a furniture/decorating business next to Julia's now defunct store. I would visit her sometimes when I was visiting or helping out with Julia's store. Turns out that she did most of the decorating in Lana and Dave's house.

A surprise guest: the man whose obnoxiousness was responsible for Dave leaving our company and starting his own business in part so he would never have to report to someone so awful again. This man is on the patent for a very important, profitable cancer drug. It was from a university where inventors get part of the royalties. Working for a company, everything you do belongs to the company and thus no royalties. He was hired to possibly reproduce his success at our company.He did talk a good game, rare among chemists. It became quickly obvious to us in the trenches that he must have had little to do with the discovery of the drug that was paying him boatloads in royalties. It took much longer for the powers that were to figure out his elaborate con game. But we all had plenty of stories..I guess it is bad form to say that you had fun at a memorial. I did. I do feel for Lana...she does not deserve this. She had saved some pictures of Dave and I but I had copies of them already.

This morning I received a Facebook friend request from a name I did not recognize. Since it is almost reunion time, I've been getting plenty of requests. Once I saw her face, I remembered. She went to the high school in the town east of us but my then best friend(who I sadly have lost track of) was friends with her. In the memorial section of our reunion site, she posted the name of a mutual friend, EH. I messaged her back, did she die of Turner's syndrome?
Yes she had. How did I know this. She had been best friends with EH for years and this was not mentioned until she died.
I took a genetics class in college. Chromosonal abnormalities were discussed. Most females are XX but sometimes they are XO. They never sexually mature, are very short, have a webbed neck. They usually die of aortic dissections. She died at 35 of a heart attack. When I was reading the symptoms, I immediately thought of EH. She was very bright and fascinated with life in the 1920s. She had made me read Zelda, a biography of F.Scott Fitzgerald who she seemed to identify with.
Another classmate I have since identified with having Marfan syndrome. Extremely tall and thin with unusual flexibility. They usually die of aortic dissections too. It is a connective tissue disorder. Steve was suspected of having it due to certain traits though no one in his family ever died of an early heart attack. While he was being screened for being a potential guinea pig, they found his EKG consistent  with someone close to death. At the time, he was running marathons at a good clip so the heart seemed to be working fine. When he went in to have this checked out, the doctor started bending his fingers back checking for 'joint laxity'. He knew what they were looking for. Additional tests showed his heart to be fine but due to the structure of his chest, a EKG is impossible to record. He and the girls are quite flexible but not pathologically so such as my ex-friend. Josh and I are extremely inflexible on the other hand.
Very humid again. I am taking a rare day off from exercising. I am awaiting  my son's arrival to have lunch.