Goodbye, Rodna

Rodna was the one that knew I'd love the plaza. (Of course, everyone in this city loves it) She was the one that knew I'd love Westport and the one that gave us some excellent Kansas City advice when we moved to town, even if we didn't listen to all of it and still lived in the city instead of Shawnee. Rodna was the one who took us out to dinner when we didn't know where to go, who bought us the Pryde's giftcard before we knew even what Pryde's was. She and Earl listened so very closely to our woes, told us the history of the city, found our first TV and bought some tools. We stayed with Rodna when we were house hunting, fell in love with the kitties, Razzle and Dazzle, and stayed with her again during our 2 weeks without air conditioning. She and Earl lent us their sledge hammer to destroy our old bathtub and then we were there at the end, when Earl died. We visited Earl in the hospital, she visited us when Don was dying. She called me the second she heard about our break-in July 09 and offered to come over and stay in the house with me, since Dan was back in Iowa. Before Don died, she took Tammy out for a little bit of shopping and her sister babysat the house during the actual burial. And after everything was over and the dying was done and the healing was taking place, she was one of the few people who understood the intricacies of our familial relationships and our intense need to do something fun after a year from hell.

So, in the end, you could say that she was there for us, through all of it. Today we said our temporary goodbyes, for, of course, we will see each other again, just in another city, at a different time, and much less frequently. So, today, you could say that I cried a bit, a little sadder than I was expecting.

Before we left our nice dinner in Brookside, all 3 of us raised our glasses of red wine and said, fondly, "To Kansas City."