Drawing is taking a line for a walk  –Paul Klee

Distractions preoccupied me this month  –  one somber,  one delightful – you’ll soon read about them.   Here goes,  starting with the somber one  :  we Bostonians lost a dear friend and prolific artist,  Lucette White.   Totally unexpected.    She was 82,  full of life and vigor right up to the end when,  after a brief illness,  an infection took her.    We’re all still in shock.

Loss of someone becomes a wake-up call for us to embrace our friends and family,  make time for them,  listen to them.    Promise you’ll never,  ever send a sympathy card!   Family members long for something personal and warm and alive.   Instead,  write a heartfelt letter –  handwritten is best even in your scraggily script  –   that celebrates your relationship with that person.       I learned this when I lost my Dad in 2001.    My Mother and I yearned for people’s memories of him,   how they were touched by him.  Our favorite was an hilarious comment from his best friend,  and fellow P-47 fighter pilot,  Smitty,  and  I quote,  We’re still the best goddam fighter pilots in the Air Force.    How that made us roar,  for years!

The biggest news of the month is that I became engaged to the most wonderful and amazing man!   Now it’s fun to share it with everyone,   as I sign off with the happiest of distractions for April 2014.