A Dear Friend From Australia

Back when we moved to Pullman, I was about 22 years old. Patrick and I moved to Pullman WA because he got a job with the city doing what he retired from - Waste Water Treatment. At that time I started writing letters to different quilters that were in the "Quilter's Newsletter" asking for friends. Because I was a "stay at home" wife, I started writing to about 10 different friends. Some lasted a long time and some lasted about a year. At that time, I found 2 very special Australian friends. Ros Blakeney and Cynda Miles. We wrote to each other for over 2 years before the two of them realized they lived close to each other and knew each other. It was so funny when we all figured out they were writing to me at the same time. We exchanged gifts and letters for close to 20 years. When I was expecting my children, they were having children too. Ros had 2 (I believe) and Cynda had 4 children. She was expecting around the time I had Katt. I sent each of her children a gift. I forgot to give her daughter, Katrina a gift and ended up sending her one when I realized what I had done. About 10 years ago, we all lost contact. Ros was busy with her life and Cynda and I continued for another year or two. Cynda lost her son to suicide and was very depressed. She wrote and told me about that, and then another letter after that. I wrote her a couple more times but never heard from her again. In the meantime, I started looking on the web off and on for years to find her again. I also looked for Ros to see how they were doing.

Yesterday, after I wrote my blog, I found Cynda Miles. I found out her husband, her daughter, and the 4 grandchildren had been in a "Murder-Suicide" on May 11, 2018. The same year my father died. The more I read the more I was shocked.

I have some older photos of her down in my photo box. I also have some photos of Ros and her family in my photo box. I had missed not chatting with her and I so looked forward to her letters.

Now I found out (photos are from the news reports) that her husband Peter killed his grandchildren, then killed his daughter, and found Cynda in the living room and killed her before he killed himself. When I read that, I went numb. I had written to her about 4 years ago, but in the news report found she moved from Margaret River area to her new home in 2013, so she may not have received my letter. Again - numb.

Cynda was an awesome person and an awesome friend. I knew right off it was her. I knew her daughters name and I knew her husband was Peter. He had been going through depression when I was writing to her years ago. I think she knew he would some day do this. Her letters would hint that he wasn't doing good when he was between jobs. Here's two links that have her story.  BBC News and Cynda's 24 hrs before. So, now I wish her peace in Heaven. I now have lost yet another friend. We used to tease each other about our Birthdays because we were the same age and I was only 13 days older. God Bless you, I will miss you!! As I have for the past 10 years.

Today I was still a little numb but I did get 3 rows done on the beading and then decided to work on my cross stitching.

I was able to get the turtle done, and I'm working on outlining it. I added a few more leaves. I did put the design in the area above the rabbit. I had to get it from the photo instead of the pattern. I can't say "happy" really applies today. I would be nice if I was Happy Stitching/Happy Quilting!