Reminiscing...

Today, when I heard that Michael Jackson died - my thoughts went not to his music - but to a friend I lost a LONG time ago.

When I was in Kindergarten, in Catholic School, we went to Mass EVERY Friday...more during lent. You can imagine that I had trouble sitting still with no parental supervision - and was easily influenced. So when Kelly who was sitting next to me nudged me during mass of course I followed RIGHT along. The Priest said, "We lift up our hearts." and Kelly and I responded by standing HIGH on the kneeler and loudly proclaiming, "We lift them up to the world!" Really quite harmless, unless your big sister happens to see you and tells your Mom and you get talked to when you get home from school. I'm actually glad I got in trouble, otherwise I may not have that memory... Kelly moved away, I don't remember what grade it was and she only moved about an hour away, so one of the girls in my class, Carrie kept in touch with her. It was late in our Senior Year of High School Carrie came to class completely distraught, she and I rarely talked but she sought me out...Kelly AND her little sister had been killed in a car accident. I remember thinking, "They were their Mom's entire world!" She was a single parent and did everything for her girls. I never heard anything more about the accident or the funeral, but since that day EVERY time we get to that point in Mass - I remember that day when two little Kindergartners got in trouble and I say a prayer for Kelly.

I only have one other distinct memory of Kelly...it is of one of her birthday parties. It must have been about 1983, Michael Jackson's Thriller hadn't been out long. We were up really late watching MTV counting how many times the video came on. I was the odd duck in the group - I didn't like Michael Jackson, I did however think the video was about the coolest thing I'd ever seen (still do!). At about 3 a.m. some of the girls decided to walk to the gas station to get candy, life was VERY different in those days. It wasn't long before the group came back with the story of a haunted house that they saw on the way to the gas station and the story the gas station attendant told them about it. (I bet that guy was laughing his head off after they left!). Needless to say the rest of the party now had to go see the "Thriller" house...which we did....and ran screaming ALL the way back to Kelly's house - and it wasn't long before the Thriller video came back on TV to scare us again:) Those were the days!

Today as the world mourns the loss of "The Prince of Pop" I am just thankful that talented people like Michael Jackson exist because without him, we wouldn't have those songs that take us back....