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Denise's Place 2009
Reminiscing
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I have lost too many that have meant so much to me in my life through accidents and death...1997 was the worst year of my life for many reasons. Here are but a few discussed: Paula Kay Ray was my best friend in junior high in Decatur,Alabama. Her grandfather was sitting on the porch of his Athens Alabama home that summer before out 9th grade, cleaning his old shotgun when it went off, blowing out Paula's brains as she was just feet away washing his car. Paula was such a kind sweet girl with an explosion of reddish wiry long hair engulfing her tiny angelic face..  My friend, Efrain 'Freddy' Cruz, was killed riding
a motorcycle in Elizabeth,NJ--He worked so hard to buy his motorcycle and was killed when hit
by a trash truck weeks after finally getting it.Freddy was a newly wed & his wife had just
given birth to their son. Freddy was so funny & handsome...
My good friend and coworker Dora Glee died from lung cancer the summer of 1998. She and my mom had became friends through me and frequently wrote each other. Dora made beautiful quilts...she made one for my mom as a gift from me for Christmas 1996...When Dora died, I had the quilt she made my mom; I covered myself with it and then the most wonderful calm came over me. It's like my Mom and Dora had embraced me. The quilt stays at the foot of my bed. Robert Dearman...my
sweet buddy in Slidell,La.;
Robert was bi-sexual but enjoyed the company
of men mostly.He was a fantastic cook,dancer & good friend.
He was always laughing and happy.Robert sadly
died basicly alone from AIDS related complications in the 80's; I think of him often.
In late 1988 I attended EMT school. We had a few classes in
the county morgue. A new born baby girl had been found dead in Vineland in a dumpster behind a Landis Ave. pizza parlor a
few weeks before.
I found inside the refridgerated storage room holding the bodies
waiting for autopsy a little red cross box that blood was transported in.
I opened the box.
What I saw caused me to start crying uncontrolably...not sobbing
but pouring tears. The dead newborn from the trash can was wrapped in a black trash bag...This baby looked like she was
sleeping; a beautiful little girl with pink cheeks and a head full of black hair with a 'T' shaped incision from her autopsy weeks
before on her little chubby chest...A sleeping angel I wanted to grab and wrap in a blanket to hide the cold of her refrigerated
tomb...A tiny angel that NO one came forward to claim or to even give a Christian burial. I'll always remember that beautiful
little angel with no name.
 " Remember Me" Remember I will still be here - As long as you hold me In your memories Remember When your dreams have ended - Time can be transcended Just remember me...I am the one star that keeps burning so brightly - It is the last light to fade into the rising sun And with you whenever you tell my story - For I am all I've done Remember I will still be here - As long as you hold me In your memories Remember me...I am that one voice in the cold wind that whispers - And if you listen you will hear me call across the sky As long as I still can reach out and touch you - Then I will never die Remember...I'll never leave you - If you will only Remember me Remember...I will still be here - As long as you hold me In your memories Remember...When your dreams have ended Time can be transcended I live forever Remember me - Remember me - Remember me... |
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My father died from a massive heart attack at the age of 44. My father was born into a dirt poor southern family. His mother, Mabel Hysler-Perry, died in child birth when he was only 3. His only memory of her was of her in her coffin holding her dead twin baby girls. He grew up in northern Ms. and Memphis,Tn. He went to school with Elvis Presley and played on the football team with him at Humes High. Dad said he did not like Elvis back then...said 'Elvis was a sissy cause he hung around girls'...Dad said Elvis's family was very,very poor...and that teenaged Elvis would set up a little music show behind the neighborhood grocers and charge to hear him perform to help out his parents. Dad enlisted in the Air force after he dropped out high school....later got his GED and a college education...he served the Korean War years in Northern Africa; He then went to work for NASA in 1955 building the rocket engine boosters...My 1957 Alabama birth certificate list 'rocket mechanic' as his employment. In the early 1970's he was sent by NASA to the Smithsonian Institute Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. to help rebuild the Saturn exhibit and to build the Skylab exhibit. Dad was very smart and loved American history...Dad died when he and I were on very bad terms in 1978....I was in Tacoma,Wa. and I never really got to tell him good-bye or that I loved and forgave him for some very bad issues. This haunted me terribly until one night he came to me in a dream that was so real that I remember it to this very day. I am at peace now with my Dad. Christine Reynolds...Chris
and I worked together in the ER and went to EMT school at the same time.Chris was so funny! She died from a ruptured brain
aneurysm.
My
dear friend Tracy Smith from Port Norris died from MS complications late 1998; she was diagnoised with MS less than 6
months before me.Tracy was full of life, an excellent Mom to her 3 kids and she had the best personality.I think of
her often.Tracy worked with male developmentally disabled and I with female;we both worked for the state...we both had 2 sons
and 1 daughter...we sat together at all baseball games our sons played in.
The NJDHS state group home I worked in from Oct. 1993 until Feb. 2001 had it's share of sickness and tragedy; the place
at times seemed haunted.
There were 3 shifts...from 1 to 3 employees only per shift so there were not many staff.This beautiful townhouse is located
off Sherman Ave.
In the few years I was there staff suffered these things:
pregnant Sharon Jackson was brutally murdered by her boyfriend, Renee died from breast cancer, Dora died from lung Cancer,
Margaret died from bowel cancer; Delia & Geneva both had massive heart attacks that left them disabled...
Carol got MS, I got MS, Brenda got some neurological disease and Dawn got Parkinson's.
  James Clon Thornton 12-7-88 was one of the only true happy days in my life; a rare day I knew true love... see you in heaven Jimmy.  |
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*It will be 10 years next year 2007 since Dustin
McCoy caused this accident described below and my mother's death-he was a punk kid then...accidents happen
and I had to forgive this mentally unstable kid at that time to move on. But to this day NO ONE in
his family or even him made an effort to contact ME to even offer a 'sorry'. My mother died 11-10-97
from MVA injuries caused 11-01-97 by a 16 year old stoned/drunk unliscensed driver in New Iberia,La. as she was returning
home from the grocery store...She was a mile from home with a carton of cheap
cigs,loaf of bread and a pound of lunch meat. I woke up at 5 AM that morn of her accident, and had
the over powering urge to call her...I did,and we had such a nice talk....Hours
later, my husband called me at work to say she was in a horrible accident. That was Nov.1,1997...I got to the airport in Philly late due to road construction Nov. 3 to fly home....no one knew when I was leaving.
I was to pay for my ticket at the counter....The plane had been delayed, some
unknown person paid for my $650 round trip ticket and I was the last one on the plane. (I never have found out whom paid for
my ticket!) I get to Charity Hospital in New Orleans...1st time in 17 years all my mother's
children were together with her at the same time. Mom looked horrific...face was crushed beyond recognition, she was egg plant
purple from her navel to her thighs...broken ribs,knees,feet....SHE comforted her children...never
once saying she was in pain.Doctors said she had no life threatening injuries...all cosmetic and orthopedic.
(She was DRIVEN 3 hours by ambulance with 2 paramedics from New Iberia to New Orleans to
the huge charity hospital after being in the Iberia General Hospital 6-7 hours because she had NO medical insurance. Total charge for that trip...$250! NJ would have charged thousands)
Anyway, we kiss mom goodnight at 9PM...At 2AM the hotel phone rings...my
mother had a massive heart attack and was in a coma. We were 3 blocks from the hospital...running
through rat dominated streets at 2 AM to the hospital was surreal...Mom never woke up...she had no
"living will" so she was kept on life support until all brain activity was gone; she died minutes after the machine was turned
off on 11-10-97. We had an autopsy; cause of death attributed to the MVA, NO
HEART ATTACK but torn messintery.
 President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 11-22-63 on my
6th birthday; His son John F. Kennedy Jr. was killed in an airplane crash on my
son's 16th birthday 7-16-99....too spooky!
Needless to say, I feel a very strong connection to Caroline Kennedy,
whom is a few days younger than me...I'd love to meet her.
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