Sunday, December 10, 2017
Linda and I drove to Topanga this morning for a gathering meant to help us heal from the death of the youngest sister in my wife’s family. Linda was the second child and the first daughter in her cluster of seven siblings. Five girls followed. Their mother is still alive, and now has a total of 14 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I wish to thank Gleen Fisher, the father of Brenda’s two very special teenage sons, and Jill Ha for hosting the gathering at Irony Gallery, the newly opened art exhibition space in Topanga.
Brenda was very much her own person, as the saying goes. “Quirky” was her preferred self-description, according to Sharon. One of her sisters, Pam, told a story of when Brenda was five years old and about to head out of the house to play with her friend across the street. She paused at the kitchen door, looked up at her mother, Noreen, and asked, “Do bugs have ears?” Maybe the “e” Brenda added to her last name stood for the “ears” with which she listened to a different set of grace notes than most of us had the flexibility to absorb. Most certainly I do not have sufficient courage to endure what she did in her battle with breast cancer the past half-dozen years.
Farewell for the moment, Brenda. “Teach peace.”
Brenda Frye (1965 – 2017)
About Bill Mohr