It was a sad week for us....

we suffered 2 devastating losses. On Wednesday, my cousin Bruce (he's on the right w/ my sisters & cousin Trey in this photo from the 80's) suffered an aortic aneurysm & passed away. My cousin Brucie was a very proper man but he also had a prankster, fun-loving side....scaring us with ghost stories about our grandparents' ranch when we were kids & years later, dressing up as Bigfoot at a girls' camp-out for one of his daughters. His funeral service was a reflection of that & was filled w/ laughter. I so admired the grace & humor displayed by his wife & adult children. Yes, humor...for Brucie left them w/ so many memories full of laughter, that it carried over into his service. We wept, sure....but we laughed far more than we wept. I wanna go out like that!

Brucie was a very successful man..... he was a lawyer here in Ft Worth but always swore that one day, he would write a screenplay & make a movie. I am thrilled to tell you that he lived to accomplish that goal...he wrote & was executive producer of a horror film entitled Beneath The Darkness. It stars Dennis Quaid & will be released in October of this year. I am so glad he lived to make the movie but sure wish he had lived long enough to see it's release. Even more, I wish that he were going to be here for the birth of his first grandchild...a boy. How heart-wrenching it was to see his daughter, big with child @ her father's funeral. :(

I am very, very fortunate to have known Brucie...he was a fun-loving, caring, do-right, intelligent, ambitious man who put his family first & foremost. All of his family....right down to his pesky younger cousins.

Give MamMaw & Colonel a big hug & kiss from me, Cuz! Tell them it's gonna be awhile but I do plan on making it there. ;)

And then on Friday, we suffered another devastating loss when we had to say good-bye to our chihuahua, Baby. She was 13 & had respiratory problems & started suffering horrible seizures from lack of oxygen, so we had to let her go. She was Princess I'll Do What I Want & kept her regal beauty, right up until the end though....as evidenced by this photo, taken just last summer.

I am honored to have been your queen Baby and although I'm not quite the task-master you were, I'll try to keep everybody in line. Love you Baby Girl!