Dear Ang,
I owe you a thank you note.
You used to send Thank you notes and small happy gifts all the time. As a grown person in the 21st century, it actually made checking the mail a pleasure. Inside the daily pile of bills and junk, there would arrive a brightly colored, hand written envelope that contained a positive message or a thank you. Just a random arrival of a message of love or gratitude that let me know I was thought of and I was loved.
Text messages would also arrive similarly – randomly and full of emojis and exclamation points. It might as well have been a voicemail, because I could practically hear her voice when I read them. They always made me smile.
Your advice was always (fairly) spot on – a mixture of positivity and no-nonsense sensibility that was hard to argue with. Take the photo. Go all in. Just book the trip. Make traditions and take time to enjoy them. Order dessert. Take the risk…. I think that the best bit you imparted to me was that “We all have baggage we carry day to day – you choose what you put in it.” After the loss of my father after some difficult years, it was the advice I needed in my grief…to carry in my heart my Dad in his happier days and not the complicated last few years before his passing. Not that I don’t remember – it’s a choice to pull out the positive memory first – to remember the good parts before the bad. That advice carried me through the deepest part of my grief. I am forever grateful.
So, Ang, thank you. Thank you (And Brian) for the unending support when we owned the restaurant,,,,I don’t think anyone ever stopped by more. Thank you for all the time spent, all the memories made, and all the memories shared. Thank you for your fierce love and loyalty, your infectious laugh, and always, always reaching out to let me know I was being thought of, and I was loved.
Above all, thank you for being my friend. I am forever grateful, and forever changed. I will miss you like hell.
The coffee, the diesel, the methamphetamine 