Brittany Maresh

writer

Every Halloween I go down the road and visit Anne, a great older lady whose grand daughter was in my class in 6th grade, and has off and on been a friend of mine ever since. She’s always got some silly new thing for me, and we sit and talk about books. She reads the same things I do, and I love hearing her stories. She likes mine too, which is why I visit her, and why I count her as one of my friends. I love baking things for her (though I have to be careful—I know she can’t have a lot of sugar).

She’s always so glad to see me, and tells me how proud she is about how I’m growing up, and hopes I’ll continue to be a good influence for her granddaughter. She laughs, and smiles, and she beads things, and she loves her animals, and she thinks the world is a great place, if you just know how to look at it right.

I found out last Friday that she’d been in the hospital, that she wasn’t doing well, and that she was unconscious and had been for several days. Today, I found out that they have scheduled her death.

She has a will, and we all know it’s what she would have wanted, but it seems so strange to me, to have a time of death for someone who is still alive.

I’m going to miss her enthusiasm and her joy, and her support. She was always so positive, and she’s had so many reasons not to be. It doesn’t seem like just a year ago that we were at her great-grandson’s funeral.

I know I should be positive, like she’d want me to be. She’s not suffering, and she’s leaving us all while we will still remember the good times, with her healthy and happy.

But I can’t help it. I’m sad. I want her to be there to e-mail when I finally get around to reading the new Dean Koontz novel, and for our silly Halloween tradition, and for when I bake too many cookies. She liked oatmeal raisin.

And mostly I want her to be there because she’d always be so glad about whatever stupid little thing I’d accomplished, and I’m not sure I know another person on the plant who could make you feel like three new words on a novel or having pulled out the scissors so you can get started cutting out the pattern for a sewing project is actually making major progress.

Sincerely,

Brittany Maresh

On a leap of faith (trusting that both it would be worth it and the people I would be staying with would be who I thought they were) I flew down to Michigan to see the opening of A Very Potter Sequel last weekend.

From the moment I stepped off the airplane to the moment I stepped back on it, the weekend was simply magical.  Bonnie, Sami, and Chrissy treated me like a long lost friend.  We sang Disney songs at the zoo, and ate the most delicious food I’ve had in ages, and even the parts where we were just driving from Point A to Point B were filled with laughter and music.  Honest to goodness did not know I could have that much fun, or be that happy. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it never did.

Darren Criss told a lame Alaska joke, except when he was telling it, it hardly seemed lame.   Joe Walker was about as nice as it got, and he even signed my Slytherin tie.  Lauren, Bonnie, and Jamie were all patient, and Devin had about THE biggest smile I have ever seen.  They all looked like they’d just had the time of their life. And I guess I get that, because it looked a bit like I felt after the Clumsey Custard show we put on in high school, only a hundred times more powerful.  In short, I suppose, they all looked so happy it was basically contagious.  I feel really fortunate to have had a chance to be there.

Not to say there weren’t mishaps during my adventure.  Such as a small hiccup in the parking garage in Ann Arbor (it’s possible to get lost anywhere), to a major hiccup on the streets of Ann Arbor (it’s even easier to get lost when all the streets are one way), to a major case of “turn off the music, Brittany has lost her voice and that’s not going to stop her from trying to sing along!”

I suppose there were more bad things, things that should upset me more than they do, but honestly? It was so amazing it’s hardly worth noticing the bad things.

Except the blank CD thing.  I got home and the CD I’d purchased was blank.  I think it was fate’s way of saying “welcome back to reality, Brittany.”  Sobering reality, oh how cruel and heartless you can be!  …wait, no, still deliriously happy.

Also, Giraffes are huge! If I can get Jean to help me figure out how, I shall be posting a few pictures from my journey. Because that much fun is only hinted at in the 300+ pictures I took.

Sincerely with love and maybe a gold star or two,

Brittany Maresh <3