Margaret is Gone Forever

Margaret lived next door with her daughter, Melissa. We read that she was killed yesterday in a head-on collision. The other driver crossed the line. They weren't wearing seat belts. Her daughter, Melissa, was flown to University Hospital and is in serious condition. Poor Melissa, if she is ever awake again, she'll find her life completely confusing. I don't even know what that would mean.

I hope Margaret and the other passenger didn't suffer. She suffered much in life. There were times I'd hear her shouting late at night - or see her running around, looking wild with Albert Einstein hair. She was depressed and possibly delusional. She'd come over in the evenings to talk to me sometimes. She collected junk from dumpsters, went to all the stores in town and "rescued" their dead flowers and rotting vegetables. She prepared for the hard times ahead. She'd tell me what she said to people that supposedly were on the property late at night. She'd tell me that some neighborhood bad boy called her a bitch. She went on one time about her shame of her own problems and how she just couldn't stop crying - and she cried for a good long time right then. She brought food over one night, which I politely accepted and then carefully discarded.

She limped that beat up Volvo to Florida and we thought she wouldn't return but late March, she did. Since then, she'd been yelling at Melissa - which we don't recall her doing before. She had barely talked to us, which was unusual. She used to bring us half-dead flowers. It appeared she was perhaps moving some of the many items that packed the old house. I didn't have a lot of hope for her but I was surprised to see in the news that she'd been killed.

Dee and I went over to her mailbox (to check the last name and make sure the old Volvo wasn't in the driveway). A cop stopped by because they're doing extra watch of that house for now and it's all true. This time, Margaret won't come back. I wonder if the members of her church will help empty all the junk out of the house or if her family will arrive from Georgia and Florida to remove some of her "treasures."