FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2015
On this day, a sizeable crowd gathered at the Palm Valley Country Club for lunch. It was held to celebrate the life of our dearly departed, Anne Lund, nee Amy Lemmens. The guests mingled and they were surprised frequently when they would run into old friends they hadn’t seen in 30 years.
There were some who were just recent friends – she met a lot of people out and about in her social world – lunch at Le Vallauris, or dinner at Spencers, Davey’s, Mama Gina’s, or Macario’s. (She loved Mexican food.)
Then there were friends of 10, 20, 30 years, etc. but the one who took the prize for oldest friend was none other than yours truly. We first met at age 17, both still in our respective high schools, when we had started playing softball. Amy as a star center fielder, she could track those flies hit out there on the field and nab them, and then when she got up to bat, watch out! She could hit those balls for home runs like crazy.
There I go – off track. Softball is another story. Back to the gathering of beloved friends and family of Amy.
Let’s just talk about the “luminaries”. Mary Hudson deserves many, many kudos for arranging this tribute – she did a fabulous job in being the “leader”. Plus, she had some great help from her partner. Thank you Bonnie.
Annie’s nephew, Gary Harrington, spoke about her life, and gave us a lot of information about her family, much of which, a lot of the folks hadn’t heard. Gary is a great photographer and great working with old photos He had prepared a CD with hundreds of photos taking the views from the childhood years of Amy to her untimely death – (in my opinion) This CD was shown during lunch. Many who were there saw themselves on the silver screen.
Patty Henderson mentioned she and Anne had met about 50 years ago, and she told us about the beautiful poetry Anne would jot down on a moment’s notice. It’s great stuff, and Anne should have published it.
Frank Peck, Anne’s attorney, gave us a picture of her through his eyes. I am just guessing – in saying he knew Anne about 30 years.
The next speaker, Toni Watson, has been a friend about 10 to 15 years and reminisced about some of the great journeys they took, when Anne was in her 80’s.
My little tribute to Amy was a fantasy tale into the future wherein we talked on the Heavenly Network version of Skype – without the picture.
The guests lingered for quite a while, finding others they wished to talk to and I would venture to say a lot of us roamed around and hung around just to have the feeling of being close to our friend Anne Lund, or in the old days – Amy Lemmens.
Left to right: Melitas, Tammy, Annie and Alba
Be seeing you around (in the old days, it was “Amy,” then “Anne,” or
“Annie,”) but we will find you. Love, Melita
MELITAS FORSTER MONDAYS WITH MELITAS
