Remembering Cheryl

It's a slow day. I'm packing up some kitchen stuff, watching football, and just generally being lumpy. The winds have blown through, taking most of the remaining leaves off the trees, and the streets are generally a soggy mess of smushed leaves. Reminds me of Eugene in the fall.

Last week, Vanessa and I drove down to Eugene for Cheryl's celebration of life. It was a nice drive, and a long drive is made much easier with a friend. We stayed with Cheryl's folks Friday night, and Rosemary had put together a lot of photo albums from the pictures we'd hauled out of storage. I'd never seen most of Cheryl's baby picture, and boy howdy, were she and her sister redheads back then. That's one of the few times I got a little choked up that weekend, as this was supposed to be the year we were going to try hatching a rugrat, and I know that little guy (or gal) would have had that uber-red hair.

The longhouse was everything we were hoping for, big, roomy, and for a woman dedicated to archaeology and Native American cultures, it really was her cathedral. It was a beautiful warm autumn day, the leaves were still turning, the skies were clear and the sun was shining - the eternal winter rains had not yet arrived.

Rosemary spoke for a bit about Cheryl, and then I picked up the story about the point where we met, and I managed to make it through without completely losing it. I was so happy that we had so many people there; family, friends from as far away as Hood River, Seattle and Pullman, co-workers, and many of them shared their stories of knowing Cheryl as a smart, loving and warm person. I was especially glad to have Dr. Dennis Jenkins speak, as Cheryl always spoke highly of him as a teacher and mentor to her.

Thanks to all who came, and to all who shared their memories of Cheryl.

Afterwards, some of us wandered around the Natural History Museum, where Cheryl worked and volunteers for several years after college (a pretty spiffy little museum, and one of Cheryl's co-workers from the museum mentioned how they are still using Cheryl's organization system there), then we wandered down to the East 19th St. Pub, which is where we had our first date all those years ago.

At least, I think it was our first date. The more I think about it, our first date might have been at Rennie's Landing. Well, I know for a fact that our second date was at the 19th St Pub, but that's another story.

In short, it was a perfect sendoff for a very wonderful woman who will be greatly, greatly missed.