Well, not quite, but pretty darn soon. I awoke to the first snow of the season, and even though it won't last, it's a harbinger of things to come.
So what happened to Autumn? And the end of summer? How could I skip a whole season?
The summer did not end well, and Autumn, although not terrible, has not been the best either. In mid-August, a close friend of mine was killed in a car accident on her way to work on a Monday morning. I'd known Patrice for 26 years; we'd met through the Weavers and Spinners Guild, and learned to weave together. At the time she was raising sheep, and trying to make a living from wool and weaving. Over the years we went to many workshops and classes; sold our fiber art at shows, and helped each other figure out tricky patterns and techniques. Since she did not knit, she often commissioned me to make things for her to sell using yarn processed from her flock. She encouraged my creativity immensely, and some of my first attempts at designing were for her.
After she got out of the sheep business, we remained close friends, getting together often for supper or road trips to interesting places. Our last evening together was just a few days before she died, and it had been such a wonderful get together, I was really looking forward to doing it again soon. Now it will be my final good memory of her.
At the same time, the mother of another close friend passed away. Someone whose home I'd been a guest in many times, and who came to visit for Thanksgiving a few years back. Although her passing was not unexpected, it was sad all the same.
In September I spent another wonderful day visiting with close friends, only to learn soon after that one of them had been diagnosed with a fast growing form of breast cancer. The outcome there looks good, but it was just another bit of sadness to deal with.
And in October, I finally had to say goodbye to sweet Lily cat. She'd been diagnosed with renal failure 18 months ago, so every extra day with her was a triumph really, even though she'd had a rough go of it at times. Sometimes, the way she acted, you would never even know anything was wrong with her. But she slowly lost ground. The end came swiftly - so fast really, that I knew there was no way she was going to pull through anymore, and that made the final decision much easier. She was 14 years old, although I'd only had her for the last eight years; adopting her after she'd been surrendered to the local Humane Society. She was my princess, and I've never known such an elegant cat.
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