Together...still...

As near as I can figure, Kate and Bob were the first people I met 55 years ago when we moved from Montana to the Seattle suburb of Kirkland.  They had a corner grocery store one block from our new house…an old fashioned corner store just like the one my parents had owned in Great Falls.  They had a son a little older than I and a daughter my brother’s age and their family has danced in and out of my life ever since then.

My mother worked part time at their store for a while.  I went to school with the kids.  When their son married a girl from Great Falls we discovered her grandmother lived a block from our store at the reception in Kirkland.  After I was married and in a home of my own, my closest neighbors and good friends turned out to be great friends of this couple.  As we had children, they played softball together.  When the son married for the second time, my daughter sang at his wedding.

When Kate and Bob left the store they moved to my block and for many years I watched Kate take her afternoon constitutional down our street…and I watched Bob come up everyday to pick up the newspaper he shared with another neighbor.  If I was out working in the yard, they would stop and chat.  Kate was a hoot and Bob was an old smoothie.

Today I went to a memorial for Kate and Bob.  In death, as in life, they did it together.  At the ripe old age of 96 they passed away within 14 hours of each other.

Rest in Peace, Kate and Bob.