Suddenly the passing week turned shatteringly tragic. Young Sara Leone and Cameron Haggett were killed in a car crash. Our most profound condolences to their families. A memorial service was held Monday at the Edgecomb Eddy School.
Another bit of sad news, Frances Dodge, nee Webber, has died at her home in Scarborough. She was often a model for artist Norman Rockwell, most famously, "The Spanking Grandmother." Anyone with a back file of Saturday Evening Posts will be able to spot her! Our great sympathies go to her family.
And also, Alice Slade has passed away. A memorial service was held last Sunday at her house. Our deepest condolences to Duncan and Gayle and other family members. Alice was one of my mother's longest-term apartment tenants. They were great good friends, and so were my sister Anni and I. I always enjoyed her robust sense of humor and cheerful cynicism over the weird ways of this world! I will miss her refreshing tonic.
But life goes both ways. Congratulations to April Blake, Tex' eldest daughter, who married Bob Foster on July 1. May they have the happiest of lives together! Tex' younger daughter Dawn is applying for prison guard duty within the Maine State Prison System. Tex herself will shortly be moving to Waldoboro, but commuting to St. Andrew's Village for her work as a Certified Nurse's Aide.
Tex also warns us all that fishers are out and aggressive! She told me she has just lost her seven-year-old cat Sam to one. I have heard fishers screaming very nearby in the woods above our house and the Blackfords. They are not nice animals to encounter!
Traffic news: A large cement mixer rolled over on Route 27 in Edgecomb Friday. No one was injured, but the mixer itself looked pretty bunged up on all sides. It must have been spinning when the vehicle lost balance.
Lea Wait announces that her third Wiscasset-based children's book, "Wintering Well," has been nominated for a Student Choice award in both Maine and New Hampshire for 2005-6. Well done! "Shadows at the Spring Show," her fourth Maggie Summer Antique Print mystery, will be released July 26. (Maggie meets Harry Potter ?) Lea will be one of 21 well known and admired Maine writers signing works at the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden's Books & Blooms event next Thursday, July 28, aka the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance's 30th Anniversary Book Fair! Call 633-4333 or e-mail cmbg@mainegardens.org.
Observing the rites of passage at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.