Melonye Rodgers
Our last car trip:
I picked her up and told her we were just going to drive around and tell stupid stories. Laughter was always our main goal in everything we did together. We decided to go to the daffodil farm and of course we were too late. Blooming season had come and gone. Instead of acres of beautiful yellow and white flowers, we got dried up and crunchy brown flowers. We laughed until tears were running down our cheeks, acknowledging that it could only happen to us. Then we rode around the back roads, pointing out all the weird and wonderful things found off the beaten path. We had a great day, despite the crunchy brown daffodils.
I remember on one of our past trips (back roads again) we were somewhere around Ben Wheeler and stumbled upon a Monastery. We decided to drive into the property since our nosiness was a "thing". It was eerie and we felt like we were being watched. We probably were. Needless to say, we didn't do that again, but it made for a great memory.
When we were out visiting blood drives we always tried to find different places to eat lunch. We stopped at a café somewhere around Chandler and the special of the day was goulash. And....we ordered it....Worst stuff EVER. We renamed it Goo-Mush and that was a running joke for years. In all of East Texas we managed to find the one place that ruined the goulash...of course we did.
There wasn't a day that went by that we didn't find joy and laughter in little things. She loved Frida Kahlo - didn't understand that love at all - so we had many conversations about the absurdity of the unibrow.
I miss my friend. I miss her intelligence and insight. I miss her stories and jokes, but most of all I miss the friendship and love that she so willingly gave to all she cared about. Rest easy my friend, and tell Ricky that the flying pig pillow wasn't my fault.....
