REMEMBERING LORYN
We moved
to Arlington Heights in 1975
to accommodate Dave’s Mom
Loryn.
She had just sold her Elgin home,
and helped us finance the house on Hickory,
just blocks away from where Dave
was working.
We didn’t know how sick his
Mom was….
but I think that she did.
We moved
in early July 1975,
and she died August 21, 1975…
not even two months together
there.
She
emptied out her bank safety deposit box
the day before she passed,
even though
Dave also had access to it.
On her last day....
I thought
that she was just very tired,
since she kept falling asleep at the kitchen table,
as
she was cutting up cucumbers to make pickles.
I always said that she “died with her
boots on”--
wearing her apron, doing a domestic chore.
When I helped her to bed that night,
I knew
something was wrong.
I slept on the
couch
outside her room that night.
I
awoke suddenly early morning,
but was afraid to go into her room.
Dave eventually came and looked in…..
she had
died during the night.
For all I know, I
may have heard
her raspy breathing stop
when I woke up.
She was lapsing into a final coma
when she
was cutting up the cucumbers….
the end stage coma
of cirrhosis of
the liver.
The one and only time I ever saw Dave cry,
and cry with abandon at that,
was at her funeral tribute.
True to her feisty nature,
Loryn had written
her own eulogy,
along with instructions
to me and Jean (her two daughter-in-laws)
about what she should wear,
and her
makeup--
she DEMANDED
that we use her own makeup,
instead of the funeral home's
"garish” cosmetics!
Dave had been constructing a hallway
from
our kitchen and family room,
to the stairs leading
to the upper bedrooms..
This hallway would provide
Loryn
with her own “suite”—
her downstairs bedroom and bathroom,
and full use of
the living room.
He had to sadly tear it
down,
midway through.
I looked forward to her
being with our two
babes,
Matt (three years old)
and Niki (almost two years old),
doting on
them,
and enjoying them with me.
She had
made a small doll’s bed
out of a small box for Niki,
with wisps of fabric for
bedding.
She sometimes acted
like a lady "to the manor born",
but I was never put off
by her lofty attitude.
She was like no one I had ever met.
She had such a loving heart and generosity
midst all that smoke and drama.
Everything she did seemed
SO unique and fascinating.
She lived in a ranch home....
in the far-off kingdom of Elgin,
across the Fox River. ..
so far from my city of Chicago home,
that it
seemed the end of the universe!
It only
added to her interesting cache
and allure to me.
My favorite photo of her
was taken on New Years
Eve,
when we shared the festive evening
with our dear friends
Mary and George Barr.
Loryn was there,
“dressed to the nines”.
George captured her image perfectly,
as she grandly displaying her pride and joy,
her mink
stole,
draped on the floor in front of her.
And then she was gone.
I looked at our new home
with its outsized back yard
which she was going to help me landscape,
and the bare bones rooms
she was going to help me decorate.
(She had talents in both arenas.)
And I wondered how I could ever manage without her.
I dedicate this blog,
this day,
in your dear memory,
my darling friend Loryn…
for your delightful
saucy opinionated ways
and your loving my husband,
my children,
and me
so ferociously.
