I always think of her around her April birthday, remembering the day I passed on the chance for lunch at the lake in lieu of the paying job. If I could go back in time, I'd pile up in that Caddy with her and the girls and make a day of it. After all, it was a gorgeous spring day and just another Wednesday at the Cancer Center for me.

We first met through her son Terry Lee. He had been my friend for many years and the family kind of took me in as an honorary member. His older sisters saw me realistically...a sane woman who loved their brother for who he was with no strings attached. Not so secretly, they wished that he'd reach out and grab the good stuff instead of chasing a ghost of a woman with anger and manipulation boiling out of every movement.

Mattye had a cancer that smacked her upside the lungs and adrenal glands. Everybody passed it off to her working so hard to take care of the yard and the house and her hubby, but she was wearing down and it caught up with her quick. She signed up for the chemo and did a few weeks of it. The oncologist told her she'd be mowing the yard again in no time and raked in the bucks with his hedging.

God works in mysterious ways sometimes. Three months after her diagnosis, Mattye threw a clot and it was all over for this life. We've talked quite a bit about Terry and the girls and the whole thing since then. Her hubby is still lost without her to take care of him in his old age. I'm believing that she's happy where she's at in that big ole' heaven where her mowers always run and the garden grows real big.