RIP, Casandra.

So yesterday (Tuesday) is measured by a message on my cell-phone: a voice I don't know, sounding chipper and light, and then telling me that my dear friend--a woman I'd known nearly 25 years, passed away...two months ago(!)
A friend of a friend, leaving words in a tone I can't quite comprehend.And how is it no one had (earlier)contacted me???
I am grieving the loss of the sweet, humble, lover of laughter, Casandra.A girl-woman who let far too few people into her life.A vulnerable woman who let men who did not deserve her trust, have it.
Though I do not (yet) know the details of her untimely (she turned 45 last December 29th) death, I know her young years were often filled with parties and dancing, and hugging doggies, and trying new eye-makeup out, and holding cookouts, and calling me at all hours, and recounting how much she had a crush on a particular guy.
Casandra didn't use computers,"Computers and I, we don't get along," she would say.The past few years, she seldom visited me, saying the new area in which I lived was too confusing in which to drive. Since I hate the phone, and she could not/would not use a computer, we visited, or did meet-ups, in-person. Which meant I often saw Casandra much more often than others in my life.I'd visit her for lunch, or after she got off work(she was a professional haircutter/haircolorist/hairstylist)for dinner, or tea(though she usually ordered wine). I knew her nearly 25 years, and I found her funny, and charming....and willing to "grow".In 1993, when I took her to my favorite bookstore, she admitted she seldom read. "Where should I go, Lisa? This feels like school..."
"Well, go where your interests are.You love fashion, start there..."
A few moments later, with a stack of magazines and a book on design, her face lit up.
Smiling, she said "Oh,this is fun...".
Many years later, a young man she had a crush on, Todd,shared some novels he loved, with her.And Cas became the reader I knew she'd one day be...
We had talked about poetry, about the sound of it.She had attended poetry open mics I'd hosted, many years ago.Now, she was reading poetry, and joined me at (Decatur, Georgia's) Java Monkey Cafe, to listen to poets read their own work, too.
We had grown closer, through our love of words.
RIP, Casandra.You were a sweetheart.A talent at hair-color, a giver of smiles and love, a truly kind soul.
Peace, kids.