{"id":8306,"date":"2024-11-26T20:22:42","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T01:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/?p=8306"},"modified":"2025-10-22T07:44:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:44:25","slug":"my-little-sister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/friends\/my-little-sister\/","title":{"rendered":"My Little Sister"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I first met Billy in 8th grade Latin class. I quickly discovered that he had a speedboat, and Billy and I became friends. I also quickly discovered that Billy had a sidekick\u2014his sister, Laura. We automatically became friends as I hung out a lot with Billy. I fondly remember her riding around on her Yamaha minibike! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shakey’s Pizza Parlor late 1970s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Later, when I went to Community College, I got Laura a job at the Pizza Parlor where I worked. She would tend the bar when I went out back to smoke a joint or partake in other similarly nefarious activities. She worked there when she came home from school in the summer. After she graduated and started working, she supplemented her income by working at a pizza parlor in Atlanta.<\/p>\n\n\n

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My parents’ house in Irvine, California, where Laura came to visit during her first year of college in Colorado. My girlfriend Holly is sitting next to Dad.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When I moved to Califonia in 1975, Laura started college in Fort Collins, Colorado. I would end up living there some 15 years later. She only spent one year there before transferring to the University of Georgia. In the meantime, she visited me around the holidays before I started school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She got a Master’s degree in education and began teaching in the school systems north of Atlanta. One of the towns she was teaching in became famous for modern-day Klu Klux Clan meetings! <\/p>\n\n\n

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With my brother Rick on his boat in Cocoa Beach sometime in the early 1990s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Many years passed. Laura was great about staying in touch, and I knew I would get a birthday card from her! We occasionally saw each other in Cocoa Beach during the holidays when we were home visiting family.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Laura at her condo in 1996. She was living there when I moved to Atlanta. Several years later, she moved into her house in Lawrenceville. I made her a cabinet as a housewarming present!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In early 1996, I moved to Georgia to become rich during the software boom of the 1990s. It all happened quickly, and I didn’t tell her I was coming. After I got settled, I went to her house, but\u2014alas\u2014she wasn’t home. I left my business card on her door, which had a similar effect! She was surprised!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Laura with my brother Dave and his family while they were visiting me. This shot was taken in the house I rented on the northern outskirts of Atlanta.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I ended up living in Atlanta for 19 years while she was there. In the first 10 years, we spent a lot of time together. We had season tickets to Broadway shows at the Fox Theater. We probably saw three dozen different performances. We saw a couple of concerts; one that I remember was Crosby, Stills, and Nash. She helped me out often, including letting me live with her for a while when my second marriage was crumbling. I became her furniture designer, making several lovely pieces over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In my kitchen in Cocoa Beach with my pup Jake during one of her visits. She came down regularly to help her Mom, who was on her own by then. We would go to art shows during the holidays and find good places to eat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Alas, I never got rich and moved back to Cocoa Beach in 2014. She was coming there frequently to help her Mom. Her dad had passed away several years earlier, so she would travel here three or more times a year.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Laura with Ziggy at her Mom’s house. We would meet there to watch the boat parade held in early December every year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We spend time together going to art shows and various places to eat. In 2015, we went on a Caribbean cruise that hosted Progressive Rock concerts.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Cruise to the Edge 2015: Laura and I went on a cruise with the Turner family, featuring Yes and other bands Laura had never listened to! We had a great time and got to spend some time together after my last disaster of a marriage, where I saw her very little (sorry, Laura). We had a great time and often spent time with Robin and his family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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My brother has a house in North Carolina near the Georgia border. Laura visited me on a trip I took there in 2017. We had dinner at Wolfgang’s in Highlands, North Carolina. We both were fond of German food, and Wolfgang’s was one of the best!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Laura was a gifted seamstress, making me this beautiful bedspread and a quilt with drums on it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We had been contemplating a cruise to Alaska<\/a> for quite some time. Finally, when I retired in 2018, we embarked on a week-long cruise, followed by a land adventure to Denali National Park.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Yakutat Bay – Hubbard Glacier – Alaska 2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It was a fantastic trip, and we got along great for two weeks. The highlight was an unbelievably fantastic helicopter ride to a glacier. I will never forget that ride and was happy we did it together!<\/p>\n\n\n

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We felt on top of the world when we took a fantastic helicopter ride to Yanert Glacier near Denali National Park. The trip to Alaska was spectacular, with clear skies and warm temperatures. It was a superb memory!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Her Mom passed away in the early 2020s. She made plans to move to Tennessee to be near Billy. I got to see her a couple of times there. On my last trip in June 2024, I saw her beautiful newly remodeled house and spent some time with just her.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I visited Laura twice in Tennessee. In 2022, I was with Bill and her on a visit to the Oakridge National Laboratory near their homes outside Knoxville.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Laura was one of the few people I knew who genuinely made a difference in the world. Although she didn\u2019t have any children of her own, she nurtured hundreds of students as a teacher. She specialized in working with kids with learning disabilities, serving as a bridge to the real world for many of them. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Laura on my boat in the Indian River Lagoon in the late 2010s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I was married to a woman with a young daughter, Lindsay. Laura and Lindsay became good friends after I bowed out, and I was always pleased about that. She had a natural way of dealing with young children that I admired.<\/p>\n\n\n

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At the Sled Dog kennels in Alaska<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

But most of all, she was an incredible friend. I was not always a good friend to her, though. Regardless, I was able to make amends for my more dastardly behavior, and she forgave me. She did insist on reminding me about it from time to time afterward. That was a part of her personality, which I also learned to accept\u2014part of the process! <\/p>\n\n\n

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Laura chows down at Tracy\u2019s King Crab Shack in Juneau. Although she was allergic to fish, crab was one of her favorite seafood dishes.

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She used to say she was my little sister. I liked that, especially as the years went by. I could talk to her about most things, and she would listen. Not a lot of people do that very well. She was one of them, and I am thankful for that.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Travel on Inside Passage in 2019. Life is good!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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In Memoriam<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Laura collected miniatures for her doll houses. She teased me long ago about playing the drums on her head and breaking the stick shown. I don’t remember the details anymore, but receiving this from her brother was a pleasant surprise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Laura\u2019s brother surprised me with a bag of her ashes and expressed her wish to be incorporated into my backyard. She\u2019s now resting with the plant my mother gifted me nearly 50 years ago when I was in school in California. After over four decades of living in pots, I finally planted the plants in the ground. This moment brings me immense joy as a cherished reminder of the significant individuals in my life.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Rest in Peace, Little Sister<\/em><\/strong> \u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n

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But Wait! There’s More!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yes, my childhood friend Robin decided I didn’t have enough of Laura, so he gave me another bag of her ashes. Another example of the kind of behavior I came to loathe hanging around the dude after my return to Cocoa Beach 12 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What ever! I decided that an appropriate place for this part of her would be in the canal behind her childhood home in Cocoa Beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rest In Peace – again – dear friend!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I first met Billy in 8th grade Latin class. I quickly discovered that he had a speedboat, and Billy and I became friends. I also quickly discovered that Billy had a sidekick\u2014his sister, Laura. We automatically became friends as I hung out a lot with Billy. I fondly remember her riding around on her Yamaha … Continue reading “My Little Sister”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[139],"class_list":["post-8306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-friends","tag-laura"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Laura-Alaska-Helicopter-2019.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8306"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10205,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8306\/revisions\/10205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}