Bitter and Sweet - The Sweet

Right now I want to remember and write about the sweet stuff.

She was always physically beautiful. Although you get used to that when you see somebody every day, I was still struck by it. In Shelby High school she colored her hair platinum blond and wore black. Susan Thomas, the little girl with big horn rim glasses who married my friend Doanne said Brenda looked like the actress Kim Novak. Which was funny because I was supposed to look like James Dean. Kim and James.

I think a lot of men had secret crushes on her. After a while I didn't mind because she was too dignified to invite advances.

She was naturally graceful and without thinking would stand with one foot arched and turned forward in a model's pose. Although always too shy to dance, either in public or in private that I knew of, she loved Dancing With The Stars. She tried to get me to watch it with her, pointing out the sexy girls as enticement. I couldn't stand the show but would usually join her in front of the bedroom TV for each season's final episodes.

We always liked going out for coffee. Some of our best times were nights at the Dairy Queen in Shelby drinking coffee with Frank and Margaret, Milton and Rhonda, Griff, Randy, and the other adults plus Yancie and all the kids. We never did find a comparable place after moving to Mount Holly. It wasn't the same.

But in the past year, we did start going to the little coffee shop in Belmont, especially after visiting Walmart, Bi Lo, or Pet Smart. In pretty weather we would sit outside and look across the street to the park and at the people strolling by. (We'd comment about the intent skinny old man who was always out running, whenever we came.) The last time we went was after one of the doctor visits, maybe after Coggins told her it probably was cancer. She was too sick to get out so I went inside and brought the coffee to the car.

Our last outings were to Einstein Bagels on S. Blvd in Charlotte. We went after the funny middle-eastern surgeon excised one of the tumors for a biopsy and a week later after the PET scan. She always liked poppy seed bagels with veggie spread. In her opinion the best came from the bagel place in Shelby near the court house. (She liked going to Shelby. Often we'd see somebody we knew. She never really felt at home in Mount Holly. Shelby was in her DNA.) She couldn't get out of the car but we managed to park close to the building (a converted service station) and could see the people come and go. We laughed at the busy yuppie boy in the Range Rover beside us.