"Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph"
Simon & Garfunklel
Bookends
Today would have been the 74th birthday of someone who was once and will always remain very special to me. Our loving bond with Suzanne’s family in Sweden softens the loss, but it's still persistently painful, thirty two years later. Suzanne will be forever young in my memories, in those occasional dreams, but she lives on now through shared love, and our precious multi-generational, international family connections.
Suzanne, BB and I worked at a Camp Fire Girls summer overnight camp, Camp Kiwanee in Hanson, Massachusetts. In the collage you can see us then and BB and I now, sadly without Suzanne. I attended the camp as a child and worked as a counselor and eventually Puppetry Program Head during the summers of 1967-1971. BB was the Tennis and Archery Program Head in 1970 & 1971. Many of the most important people in my life were met there during those college era summers. I connected with fascinating young women and had those eye opening escapades one has in their early 20s. Each summer the camp worked with an agency that recruited young women from around the world to work in summer overnight camps. That's how I met Suzanne who was from the West Coast of Sweden. We remained close until her tragic death. She and I shared so many trips and often life changing adventures here and in Europe in the 70s and 80s.
Unbelievably, she was murdered by a mentally unstable person during a domestic violence incident in the safe kingdom of Sweden in 1990. The world has missed what she might have been, but while she lived she surely felt her wings.
In 1991, I organized a Memorial Service for her at the camp, Camp Kiwanee in Hanson, Massachusetts. It is no longer an overnight camp, but was purchased by the town for a recreation area. Many weddings are held in the old bungalow and the beautiful water view from the spacious veranda. T and I kayak on the pond that once taught countless girls, including me to swim. The floating Wish Boats were something we did at camp at the end of each two week session for the young campers. They decorated small wooden squares, a candle was attached and they were floated on the water, each carrying a wish. My dad made the squares for the group of us at the Memorial and we decorated them and floated them in Suzanne's memory.
Extras, Marionettes and the Memorial Wish Boats
For the Record,
This day came in muggy, we expect some rain later to relieve the early drought!
I retired from public school teaching after happily spending twenty eight years playing in Kindergarten. Now I fill my days watching cat antics, taking endless...
