I L-O-V-E Lucy!

I am NOT talking about Lucille Ball Arnaz, but Lucile Stoltz Poling.

People come into our lives for different reasons, in different seasons, and some FOR a lifetime. Lucy, as she was fondly called, was ALL three. My children called her ''Miss Lucy."  She was my next door neighbour in Glen Burnie, MD, where my husband and I had moved with our two young children, in 1985.

Lucy had recently retired as a public school teacher in the schools of Baltimore City. She was thirty years my senior, but she quickly became my friend, my confidante, my mentor, a grandmother to my children, and a lifeline to this friendless and lonely young Canadian mother, totally out of her east coast element, and so far from any family or friends.  I learned oodles of things from her, as she shared her wisdom and knowledge, from how to properly set a dinner table for entertaining, to how to eat a soft shell crab sandwich.

We remained friends for a reason and our friendship lasted over the next thirty plus years, in spite of the distance, as my family and I returned to Canada two years later.  We were able to visit each other a few times, and maintained correspondence the good old fashioned way, through phone calls and snail mail letters. Lucy n-e-v-e-r took to the new technology.  She sent countless birthday gifts and Christmas gifts, all the years our two children were growing up.

When she and her husband John retired to Florida, we visited with our teenagers, on our way to a family cruise in the Caribbean.  John, unfortunately, died of cancer a few years later. My ex and I flew to Washington, DC, driving back to Glen Burnie, Maryland for John's memorial service. We hadn't told Lucy we were coming. I will never forget the look on her face, when we walked in. She hugged us SO hard, and was so, so grateful that we had come to share in her sorrow and pay our respects to her much beloved husband.

Lucy was no angel though.  She was to me, but had my skin been brown or black, she would have not treated me the same way. She was outspoken, outrageous, irreverent and TOTALLY without any politically correct parameters when it came to speaking her mind. The most appalling remarks could come out of her mouth.  The following is a VERY MILD one.  At the age of 92, when I visited her in Florida, her remark when I commented on the unique names for the new subdivisions popping up all over, i.e. Bellavista, her retort was, "Who is building them? A bunch of Wops!"

Lucy made me laugh... all the time.  She had a wickedly keen sense of humour and repartee unequaled to anyone else's, except for maybe my ex husband. She was kind, loving, caring and giving, to me, my family, and to many, many other people who were fortunate enough to have met this intrepid woman.  She always looked out for me, always and by leaving me a bequeath in her will, has made my life a little easier. She will be forever in my heart and in my memories.   May God bless and keep her up there with him in heaven, where I am sure she is having a rollicking good time drinking martinis and entertaining everyone!

Were you blessed with a "Lucy" in your life?

My lifetime friend Lucy passed away in March, at the ripe old age of 92.