The night before (Halloween) we had been laughing, and playing, picking on the kids that came in search of candy... Shally, was not sick, nor had she been. Later, we went to bed. We cuddled. We made love. I held her in my arms and told her that I loved her. We drifted to sleep in each other's arms, and she died.

At 5:00 am the alarm went off telling me to go to work. I got up, went into the kitchen and plugged in the coffee pot (the first of many that horrible day) went to the bathroom and returned to the bedroom. Shally was still in bed. This was VERY unusual, I playfully kicked the foot of the bed. When she didn't respond I became concerned, and walked around to touch her.

Her skin was ice cold and stiff. Having been a field Corpsman in the army, I not only know advanced first aid and CPR, I'm Red Cross Certified as a CPR Instructor. But she had been dead for hours, there was nothing to be done, but dial 911 and wait for the nightmare to settle in. The autopsy reported her to be in perfect health, with not so much as an aspirin in her blood stream.. The County Medical Examiner said that there was no reason for her to die, he said "It's kinda like a watch running down. She did not have a heart attack, but for whatever reason her heart just stopped between one beat and the next." I later built a Web page in her memory, you are welcome to visit http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/8902/

I'm not much of a writer, so the page is a pictorial tribute containing my favorite pictures of my lost Love and a poem that I shamelessly stole from a marker at the cemetery where I buried her. I'm in a few of those pictures, but don't be fooled they range from 13 years old to about 3 years old. I no longer look much like those... In the last 3/4 of a year my beard has became over half white, and my hair is working on catching up. :o) There is also one picture there of Shally as a little girl. We never had children. It was a well thought out and mutual decision that seemed right at the time.....

Love & Hugs,
-Poppa