And on to today....
I loved Pam Patterson. I loved her writing on our departed meeting ground, Pearlsoup. I visited the PS nearly every day online in 2003-2005. PS was a writer's website that saw a good deal of of my poetry when I had revived my voice and was writing nearly every day.... some of my editorial and joke posts, and way too much of my comments and personal opinions! It may be that latter part of the comments and opinions that bonded a few of us together, so that when the website went dark, we were still able to email and to follow each other's blogs.
Pam and I got together for the first time with her sister Kelly and a writing friend of mine that I had met in a Yahoo group, the delightful Marion. We were all living in the south and spent a girls weekend at a beautiful cottage on the river in Louisiana in 2008. I flew to Dallas and Pam and I drove there, meeting Kelly, who had driven in from Arkansas and picked up Marion along the way. The weekend was a delight.
Pam was a special poet...not afraid to pursue dark and lonely thoughts in some poems, along with witty repartee in others.
Pam had a love for family, for her dogs...a penchant for decorating her beautiful home, and a compelling need to clean that house like a whirling dervish! Having been a devoted caretaker for her two grandsons while her daughter worked, Pam incredibly, late in life, found a career teaching/aiding special needs children in the Dallas school system. I last saw her on a visit to Dallas in 2009. I got to see Bear Bear, too, on that trip, my favorite of her pack of "furkids". Bear Bear passed on in 2010, but Pam continued to run with her pack of "furkids". I think her pup Spanky replaced Bear Bear in the pack.
Last pic that Pam sent to me, shows her in her classroom, with a student... a real illustration of how devoted she was to the career that came along late in life:
As her life got busier, Pam's time to devote to blogging became less and less. So, while I could continue to follow Ms. Marion's active blog and to live text and stay in touch weekly, with Kelly, I did not have as much interface as in the past. We reduced to following each other on Twitter, although I got an amazing email from Pam just a few months ago.
More's the pity that I did not take more time. That I didn't let her know how much I cared.
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Pam passed away after a short bout with a terrible illness on February 24. My heart breaks at having not called her in her final weeks. But I know she knows I was thinking about her. I always will.
