Beth Sherman. 1950 – 2010.
Man, when I wrote that title, I realized that Beth would be 60. The truth is that I don’t remember when her birthday is, exactly, but she was always four years older than me when I was a kid and so she must still be four years older than me. Except that, after years and years and years of fighting off a recurrent brain tumor and all of the stuff surrounding that, she has finally succumbed to it. It happened a couple weeks ago and tonight was the first I heard about it.
Beth is the daughter of one of my dad’s best friends, Pete Sherman, and every summer when we were kids in the 60s, the whole five-kid Sherman family would truck over to Fin Family Moominbeach from their home near Niagara Falls in their VW Bus. They would park the bus in our cabin yard and set up their pop-up camper and share our kitchen and outhouse with us for a couple of weeks. Community dinners? Yeah!!! The Sherman kids felt like cousins even though they were not blood relatives. Beth was the oldest in that family and the only girl. Being four years younger than Beth, I was always totally in awe of her. And probably trying to tag along to the point that I drove her nuts. Well, except for the fact that one of her younger brothers was my first boyfriend. At the grand old age of six.
Oh man. Miss you Beth. Miss the old days. Miss the outhouse and all the days we swam in big nor’wester-type waves. And the times our dads took multitudes of kids in one canoe over into Mosquito Bay. And the trips to Spectacle Lake and Pendill’s Creek and all over in that old VW bus with all the stickers on the windows.
See you on the other side some day.
February 8th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
So sorry, KW. It’s hard when people our general age move over to the other side. A family friend (and staple of my youth) of mine died 15 months ago and I’m still in denial.
February 8th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
I’m sorry that you lost a friend. (Wow. I was born in 1950.) Today I learned today that a “kid” from our childhood neighborhood needs a liver transplant. My good friend Jackie has a younger brother. Keith was the one that would put his ear to the door when Jackie and I were talking in her room and would do as much as possible to annoy us. He grew into a wonderful adult. I am sad to learn that he is so sick. They are waiting results of tests to see how bad he is. GG may want to know because I think he was friends with him also. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
February 9th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
I hate losing people from those old days–they share our memories and our lives. That’s what I miss most about having lost my brothers; there is no one to reminisce with.