Maybe it’s the short days but I always seem to feel it harder when people die around Christmastime or I don’t hear about it till then.  Leo Sears was a familiar face at the Harbor group  and elsewhere in the community.  I never agreed with him once but he was always genial, always a good sport. I will definitely miss him.

I have a hard time deleting people from my phone/email  list when they die. I leave them there forever so I remember them. I still have Chris Crawford on my list.  Charles Ollivier.  Dave and Penny Elsebusch. I never put Leo on my list but his card is on my desk.  Think I’ll leave it there for a while.

Last week I dropped in at Mike’s Drive Up for the first time in a couple of months and found a memorial had been placed there for the nice lady who waited on me 100 times and who apparently died October 15. Her name, it said, was Sharon Carpenter. I never knew her name, I never even had a real conversation with her. I was afraid to start one because of the right-wing  propaganda posted around the place, I figured we wouldn’t find common ground.  Yet she and her husband are the kind of people who keep the nation running. They get up in the morning and sling burgers or pump gas and never get recognition. They are the salt of the earth and deserve honor. They are the people who make Eureka a nice place.  One of their children was manning the counter, but it won’t be the same. 

So while you’re Christmas shopping  stop in and have a burger (with everything including chili) at Mike’s.  It’s a Christmassy thing to do. And say hi to the family.

END