Remembrance

The above obituary is for the mother of my oldest best friend. Jamie Kaye and I were born 6 months apart and we lived next door to each other in El Paso. She appears in my family photos and I in hers from the time we were toddlers. We played with each other practically every day. I thought her mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. And, I loved her name – Arnolda Edwina – it was so exotic. She and Jamie’s dad divorced sometime when we were in grade school so Arnolda had to go to work and she started as a school secretary at Ross Jr. High where Jamie and I attended 6^th grade together. It was so cool to have connections with the school office. My family moved from El Paso right when I started 7^th grade and I didn’t see Arnolda again until about six years ago when my sister, Juli, and I took a road trip to El Paso and down memory lane. Arnolda was, by then, a little frail but she was still able to walk and talk and live a relatively normal life. Sadly, her health started to decline and she has spent the last four (maybe five) years in a hospital bed in the house she and Jamie moved into after the old neighborhood started to decline (my old house is now a drug-runner’s home – complete with high fence and concertina wire! The beautiful yard my mother worked so hard to keep is now a cement parking lot). Jamie has cared for her mother at home this whole time and, while it is a beautiful release for Arnolda to go home to join her mother and father, it has left a huge hole in the life and heart of my friend. So, I want to remember Arnolda here and to pay loving tribute to the tireless sacrifices of my dear friend, Jamie Kaye.