Rachel

My old pals John and Michelle buried their daughter this week. John's daughter Rachel was actually Michelle's step-daughter I met Rachel before I met Michelle. She couldn't have been more than two or three at the time.  Rachel and Kiva were close contemporaries and best pals when they were little fellers. Both of my girls spent a lot of time with Rachel, first when we lived in Ashland in the 80s and later in Portland. John and Michelle moved to beautiful, old Sellwood and we came later to the house in St. Johns. We drove cross town regularly to see them and they came to our place. Our girls shared birthdays, sleepovers, camping trips, Country Fairs and Dead shows. They watched my kids for New Years Eves and opening nights, I watched their two oldest when the youngest was born. We were in and out of each other's lives until the kids were in middle school.  Not long after, Rachel went off the rails pretty badly; drugs, crime, a bad crowd. She eventually pulled her life back together to some degree, but may have fallen off the wagon. I haven't heard the cause of death, but she was struggling with sleep apnea and asthma, which certainly couldn't have helped.

Losing my contemporaries is bad enough, but when my kids' contemporaries die? Jesus.

I went through a box of photos looking for pictures to scan and send to my friends. There sure are a lot of dead people in my photo albums.The pictures of me might as well be of someone else. Who is that woman? No-one remembers her; not Sequoia, not me.

The photo above is of John, Sequoia, Rachel and me at Jimmy and Konnie's west coast wedding.  Not long before that, I bought a mandolin for Sequoia and then commandeered it for myself. John, Sequoia, Jimmy and I played music all weekend long, one of the first times I ever did that.  This photo was taken on the rocks above the river. We all jumped about 20 feet into a clear, deep pool and I was such and idiot that I let my daughters jump, too.  They were free range kids, no doubt about it. It's a wonder they survived.

Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end.