I just got a call telling me that Melanie (Thomason), Wordifull, has left the planet. I mailed her birthday card yesterday.
Melanie and I became friends years ago. I loved her poetry and she loved the chicklets. She flew in to stay with me a couple of times. We had a LOT of fun and hardly slept, since we couldn't stop laughing and talking. I took her downtown, which was a blast. We kind of got lost in the Art Institute's gift shop, so many things to see. We spent most of her visits in bookstores and eating pizza. She was a wonderful person. We talked on the phone all the time.
Apparently, she took a cup of coffee outside, to sit and enjoy the view. The man she lived with, went inside to get something and when he came out, she was slumped over...gone.
Melanie had been going from one doctor to another for a LONG time, but she couldn't get anyone to actually listen to her.
We had a long phone conversation a week or two ago. She could barely function. She was in constant pain. But she had come to some incredibly important insights about her life. I was so happy for her. We had a big phone celebration. That was a truly an important moment for her.
I will miss her. We were always sending each other silly things. Once she sent a rubber clog, through the mail, for my birthday. She wrote all over it and it actually got to me.
She was a brilliant and talented poet. I sent her subscriptions to Poetry Magazine, always urging her to enter their contests. But she never did. She had a lot on her mind and felt that the "perfect" poem was yet to be written. She was wrong, of course. Her poems were wonderful. She did publish her book, however, which had been a life long dream of hers.
She's free now. No more pain, suffering or frustration. She slipped away quietly, coffee in her hand. She will be missed, so very, very, much.
A page from Melanie's book MOONPIES & NAUGAHYDE. She was so happy with her book. I did the artwork, so we got to work together on her project. I have her wonderful book of poems to remember her by.
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