Pearl...Rest in Peace...

My cousin, Pearl Rich Perkins died yesterday with her three children around her.

I knew Pearl probably before her husband, Bradley Perkins. did. She lived in Pageton, in the last house before the house of J.D. Poe, my friend, and his family lived in the 'big house'. Her father was Louie Rich (shorted from Ricchelli or something like that because Italians did that back then).

Pearl was bright, funny, full of life. After Bradley died a decade or so ago, she had some health problems and then suffered from early onset Alzheimer's for the last years of her life.

Living in the moment, as I mostly do, is a problem when it comes to keeping up with the past.

We pass close by where Pearl has been for years every September on the way to the beach in North Carolina. We could have stopped some of those years and said 'hello'. And we didn't.

I regret that now. Pearl was dear to me but I've spent years without seeing her. And now she is dead and there is nowhere to stop on the way to the beach.

Ponder this (I will!) who in your past do you want to be in touch with before it's too late?

I love you, Pearl. You deserved better from me.