The Incredible Ms. C
Susie and I had been in California for about a year and a
half when Ms. C hobbled in to our life. The hobbling explanation is coming. We
had just bought our first home in CA that summer (first home in CA, how crazy
is that?) and we had no idea how our new neighbor would impact our world.
Penny Contreras lived beside us in a small home in Oakhurst,
CA that she had purchased about 6 months before us. She was a recently widowed
lady from Fresno who like us, loved the mountains and refused to be a
“flatlander”. She didn’t want to just visit the Sierra’s; she wanted to
co-exist with them. Her husband had recently passed away and they had both
enjoyed it so much up here, that she made the move. Plus, her husband was laid to rest a few
miles north of town on the road heading toward Yosemite and she wanted to be
able to be near him. Her family
questioned the move, not unlike ours, and could not understand why anyone would
want to live up here. The mountain’s can
be a magnet.
From the first introduction, Susie and Penny became the best
of friends. I’ll go out on a limb and say that Susie never had a better friend.
From that day forward, Penny and Susie were in separable. Penny had hip
replacement surgery that fall, and Susie became her go-to-gal. Susie checked on
her everyday and was at her beck and call 24/7. She would walk over to Penny’s
after we ate supper and help her out with washing the dishes, cleaning up the
house or whatever needed to be taken care of. Susie loved to help out, because
Penny loved her right back. I carried wood pellets into the house for her stove
and swept the leaves off her roof, not because I felt she was needy, but
because I wanted to. Penny watched after Susie when I was out of town and this
was my way of returning her favor.
On most Monday’s, I was out of town and Monday’s became
“Dinner at Penny’s” for Susie and Penny. They would get together sometimes at
our house, but mostly at Penny’s. Dinner, conversation and wine seemed to be
the usual menu. Penny’s hip never did “get right” and it was easier for Susie
to walk 100 yards to Penny’s house than visa versa. Most weeks, besides Monday’s, we seemed to
eat at least one meal a week with Penny on her back deck. She would never let
us buy the food, but she would have us cook for her. Penny always kept cold
Pacifico beers in the fridge for me and I could always count on Penny saying, “
You need a beer, dear?” whenever I was cooking. The “Monday’s with Penny” bond
was so ingrained with the two of them, that after we moved back to Texas, they
talked every Monday at 7:00 PM sharp to go over their week’s activities. Monday
dinners morphed into Saturday night dinners and then the semi annual Seafood
Spectacular was born. All seafood was represented at this event, from salmon to
scallops. Susie, the anti seafood culinaryist (I think I just invented a new
word) became a seafood aficionado on one of these occasions. Stranger things, I
do not believe, exist.
Although Penny had a much bigger impact on Susie, she
affected me also. Penny used to write a blog called “A View From the Rocker”,
and her musings of life in general gave me the idea to do the same. She gave me
rave reviews on my first blog and probably kept me going. For a long time she
was the only reader it seemed, but she gave me the encouragement to write how I
felt.
Leaving Penny and moving back to Texas was one of the
toughest things we ever did. The morning we left, Penny walked all the way over
to the house to say goodbye. Susie told her, “I told myself I wouldn’t cry”,
but they both bawled like lost calves. I
felt like such a heel for moving us away from Penny, but I kept telling myself
it was the right move. About a year or so after we were back in Texas, Susie
went back to Oakhurst for a two-week visit. Penny paid for the flight to Fresno
and even bought Susie a first class ticket. The whole time Susie was in
California, I kept thinking that I wished I were there too. Penny needed us and
we needed Penny.
I think our happiest days were after I found out that I had
got the job in California and we were moving back. I would listen to Penny and
Susie talk on Monday’s and I could just feel the joy in Susie’s voice. About a
month or two after I got the job, Penny fell and broke her hip. She was by
herself on the floor in her living room for several hours until someone heard
her yelling and called 911. She was in the hospital and rehab for 2-3 weeks
before she came home to Oakhurst. I stopped by to see her and was shocked to
see how she looked. She put on the good face and said she was doing fine, but I
didn’t buy it. Susie and I struggled for about 3 more months and finally were
able to sell our Texas house and get moved back to California. Susie and Penny
picked up where they left off and you would never know we had been gone for
three years.
It seemed that right after she started making progress with
her hip, Penny had knee replacement surgery. I don’t know how she managed
without Susie. Another of Penny’s friend, Judi, helped out also and the two of
them, Susie and Judi, somehow managed. While all of this is happening, Penny
realizes she needs shoulder surgery. When it rains it, pours. Her quality of life became worse and the
happy, cheery Penny soon became tired and cranky Penny. When Penny felt bad,
Susie was the mirror image of her. I could see the strain in Susie and I knew
that time would make a difference and the old Penny would be home soon.
A few weeks ago Susie called me awhile I was working and I
could feel the worried tone in her voice. She said she had called an ambulance
and was taking Penny to the hospital in Fresno. When I got to the hospital that
afternoon, she had been in surgery for about an hour. She came out of it in
relatively good shape and we knew she would have a long recovery, but all was good.
The next day sounded encouraging and we started planning her rehab stint.
Penny passed away the next morning. She was strong until the
end and it finally became more than she could handle. As the family gathered in
the room with her in those final moments, we all just quietly talked and
everyone tried to look composed. When Penny’s time was up, I looked around the
room for a few seconds and tried to keep my own composure. I didn’t want to
remember her like this. I had never seen anyone die before and the moment was
so surreal. Just a few days ago, Penny had been struggling, but she was
recovering. Now, I just could not believe she was gone.
Susie and I took a little time off last week and went to the
coast for a few days. Penny loved the Central Coast and wine tasting. Susie and
her went to Paso Robles and Cambria when they could and always had a big time.
Kind of weird how we planned this trip before she passed and here we were,
traveling to one of Penny’s favorite spots.
After the drive up California 1 from Big Sur to San Francisco, and then
over to Sonoma and Napa, Susie and I were sitting in our back yard talking
about our trip. Susie and Penny would always discuss the week’s events and
Penny loved to hear about our adventures in our new homeland of California.
Susie held a
tear back and
painfully said, ”I don’t have anyone to tell about my trip now.”
Everyone, if even for a moment, should have a friend like
Ms. C.
