Virginia...not the state
Jun. 25th, 2006 07:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billeylerI first met my friend Virginia in early 1984, back in the days when we were both cloggers. She was a vibrant red-headed 60 year old with the best legs I had ever seen on a woman. Really.
Over the years, we've been dance partners, taking Advanced in 1987, then annually hitting the Marshall Flippo dance. She remembers Flippo from the 50s when (as she says) she had the hots for him and his style and his head of curly brown hair.
After she gave up clogging, she started teaching line dances and formed a group called the Golden Girls and another called the Silver Foxes, all seniors of course. I was an honorary member.
I've always loved Virginia's zest for life. She's helped entertain my mom on her visits by whisking her around to the casinos or the VFW for drinks. She's supported me since 1998 by attending chorus concerts. She had unlimited energy to just GO, which often left me feeling slug-like.
She'll be 83 in September, and has definitely lost that Zing she always had. She can't dance anymore, is nearly deaf, her eyes are going. The worst part is that she's become a victim in so many ways. Four or five close friends and family have died this year, in awful ways. Her grandson that she had given her house to after he had left his wife and gotten in a horrible custody battle (where she still lived, but mostly in a back room because of his moods), recently split without telling her and left her with a mortgage she's now having to pay off. She didn't HAVE a mortgage before he moved in (she inherited the house from her 4th husband who died a couple of years ago). Her older sister is starting to require constant care, since she's nearly blind.
It's all pretty sad, and Danny and I don't really know what to do about this. Her emails are completely filled with the grief and anquish of it, all written in nearly one run-on sentence.
She does have kids though, but the thought of living with them isn't in the picture. She's still driving, but I don't know how long that's going to last.
We'll try to be supportive, but it's just hard.
Over the years, we've been dance partners, taking Advanced in 1987, then annually hitting the Marshall Flippo dance. She remembers Flippo from the 50s when (as she says) she had the hots for him and his style and his head of curly brown hair.
After she gave up clogging, she started teaching line dances and formed a group called the Golden Girls and another called the Silver Foxes, all seniors of course. I was an honorary member.
I've always loved Virginia's zest for life. She's helped entertain my mom on her visits by whisking her around to the casinos or the VFW for drinks. She's supported me since 1998 by attending chorus concerts. She had unlimited energy to just GO, which often left me feeling slug-like.
She'll be 83 in September, and has definitely lost that Zing she always had. She can't dance anymore, is nearly deaf, her eyes are going. The worst part is that she's become a victim in so many ways. Four or five close friends and family have died this year, in awful ways. Her grandson that she had given her house to after he had left his wife and gotten in a horrible custody battle (where she still lived, but mostly in a back room because of his moods), recently split without telling her and left her with a mortgage she's now having to pay off. She didn't HAVE a mortgage before he moved in (she inherited the house from her 4th husband who died a couple of years ago). Her older sister is starting to require constant care, since she's nearly blind.
It's all pretty sad, and Danny and I don't really know what to do about this. Her emails are completely filled with the grief and anquish of it, all written in nearly one run-on sentence.
She does have kids though, but the thought of living with them isn't in the picture. She's still driving, but I don't know how long that's going to last.
We'll try to be supportive, but it's just hard.
