Remembering Dotty

Dear Diary,

Today is the first anniversary of my dear friend Dotty's death.  I can't believe it has already been a year and I still miss her very much.  I made this photograph of her when I first started the First Person Rural project and it is still my favorite image.  I made a montage of it with a quilt that Dotty made for me for Christmas one year.  I treasure it as I do my memories of this remarkable woman.

Her hands were always busy.  Making quilts, cross-stitch work or baking her famous apple pies, she was constantly "doing".  She was very much like my grandmother in that respect although she was the same age as my mother.  I have always said that I was so fortunate to have four mother figures in my life and Dotty was one of them.

I will take a bouquet of garden flowers to her grave today before I head out for my trip to Ogunquit.  I just want to say "thank you" to this darling woman with whom I had countless conversations.  I still talk to her from time to time and I am sure she is still listening.

Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them. - George Eliot