I was thinking about signing up for Lori Anderson’s Memories and Thanks Blog Hop. My friend Susan died earlier this year and I wanted to make something in her memory. She called me one Sunday last March and said she wanted get together to play with beads. By this time, her left leg was huge from lymphedema and I didn’t think she should drive. I told her I would come to her house.
But no. Susan did things her way. She wanted to be in my workshop with me and play with beads. She got herself down the steps to my basement workshop while I held my breath. We played and chatted for two hours. I had given her lots of jewelry over the years and made beads for her too. She brought the beads over and a sack of her broken jewelry. We tried out jewelry designs, looked at beading books and forgot she had cancer. We talked about the future. Before she left, she gave me some beads and broken jewelry so I could use them in a new piece. The next time I saw her, she was very sick. She died two weeks later.
When I read about the Memories and Thanks Blog Hop, I went on a tear through my workshop looking for the items she gave me on that last visit. But this story is not going to end up like you think. I could not find that jewelry even though I tore the place upside down. I know she was hiding it from me. As I resigned myself to giving up, I pulled out a box full of beads that I bought in South Africa a few years ago to make a necklace for Shari. When Shari died before could make her anything, I put the beads away and didn’t look at them for a long time.
I found myself staring at the beads and heard Susan’s voice, “You weren’t really looking for me, Lamb Chop. You’ll get to me when you’re ready.”
And so I will. In the meantime, I unexpectedly find that I am ready to make Shari’s necklace.
Finally.
Ornamento 
I am so glad you’re going to do this.
Me too. Thanks for providing that K-I-T-B I needed.