Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Andrea

Just last week, my friend, Andrea, passed away. A little over a year ago, she learned that she had cancer. Since that time, she endured a number of surgeries, as well as two rounds of chemotherapy. But she finally lost her battle with the disease last Thursday at the age of 38.
I met Andrea though Borky and that had to be at least 8 or 9 years ago. I think my strongest emotion upon hearing of Andrea's passing is anger. Life is not fair, and losing Andrea is a prime example. People throw around the term of someone being a "good person". But Andrea truly was a good person. She was caring considerate, responsible and always positive. I don't think I have even heard her swear.
I think one of my favorite stories about Andrea happened at Alpine Valley during a Jimmy Buffet concert. We had grass seats, but as I always do, I would be sneaking into the reserve seats section. Lynn and Andrea came with me. I was pretty shocked that Andrea would even attempt doing such a thing. But she did. She even said to me "Wow, it is way more fun than sitting in the grass seats."
I was at the funeral on Monday and the hardest part of the service was listening to an open letter written by Andrea's father. My deep sympathy goes out to her family and friends as they deal with the unfair and devastating lost of such a wonderful person.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well said, Rickie!
Lisa

Anonymous said...

Lisa, Myra, Lynn, Beth and 2 of Andrea's HS friends gave some very moving/funny speeches/poems that day (along w/ the letters from her Mother and Father). It was a very fitting tribute to one of the most wonderful, nicest, caring and genuine people I have ever known. Great job ladies. It was a sad weekend, but also a great weekend to reflect on how great Andrea is/was. Going through all of those photos of Andrea was special, and being 100% honest, she never took a bad picture out of all of the picture we looked at and scanned in for the wake/funeral. I'll really miss holding her hand and running through the crowds to get to the bus during Summerfest. That was our thing. She was one of a kind for sure.

-borky

Anonymous said...

My sympathies to all of you who were touched by her life, God must have determined that she had fulfilled her purpose here on earth; it appears she made quite an impression.

Deb (Rick's sister)

Anonymous said...

Thank you Rickie (and Borky too!)

--Lynn