Sad....

In the past week I've had a couple of phone calls about friends I've not seen for a long time. The first was Kai Rahnel. Kai came up quite a few years ago and did a 4 day painting workshop that I organised - we stayed in touch for a while, but over the past couple of years, I hadn't really spoken to here... figuring we've both kinda drifted away from folk art to some degree. So it was a real shock when I was asked if I'd heard anything about her death! I didn't think that not hearing would be possible - her book, 'Don't be a Goose' was one of folk art's best sellers, and I thought if something had happened, it would have been through the grapevine very quickly. But, with such an unusual spelling, it's hard to believe that the death notice I found on the net could be anyone else... which just leaves me floored!!! She wasn't that much older than me.... and there was no explanation in the notice....

Then yesterday I had a phone call from one of my painting students.... asking if I'd seen the death notice in the paper of one of my former students...

This student wasn't with us for long, and we knew she'd had cancer, was in remission and had well outlived the time allocated to her by the doctors. We saw her off on an around Australia holiday with her husband, and never heard anything again... until now.

And finally, a good netball friend of mine who is definitely not old, had a heart attack last year that totally floored me. Not a severe one, but she's way too young for all that. The Dr's at the time decided that it must have occurred due to a flu weakening her heart as all the tests came back all clear. But apparently the past couple of weeks she's had a pain in her chest - and her Dr was booked out for a week! So she just let it slide... fortunately, her sister was up visiting and wasn't willing to let it slide and called the doctor who told her to get up to the hospital ASAP. It was her heart again - not a flu - so there is definitely something wrong there, but the good news is that they will be sending her away to find out exactly what it is. Don't want to lose someone else right now....

So, it's been a bit of a sad time. Please, if you're reading this - take care of yourself... if not for you, for me!!!