

I was numb the entire day.
Mary Ellen and I were the same age. She has four siblings, and she was the middle one. She lived in Pennsylvania, and we always had a great time when we saw each other.
The top picture is from our senior year in high school. She went to Pitt and graduated with an engineering degree. She was one smart chick! She went on to work in the automobile industry designing dashboards.
She got married and had a daughter named Meghan. Meghan was only three when her mother died. I'll never forget the first time I met Meghan. It was a few years after Maryellen had passed away. She thought I looked like her Mom.
The second picture was taken in 1971. I'm sure this is how Mary Lou Retton started her career as a gymnast! Neither one of us made it to the Olympics.
We took two fun trips together when we were younger. We went with my parents to a Dude Ranch in Colorado. We wore cowgirl hats for a week, rode horses, and took jeep trips into the mountains. We both fell in love with the young guy who fixed our breakfast each morning over an open fire.
We also went to Canada together. As we approached the Canadian border, I'll never forget my Dad telling all of us to be calm, and to honestly answer any questions they asked. The border patrol looked in the car and asked where each of us were born. My Dad answered - Kentucky. As we drove away, we all got a big chuckle out of that because he was born in Pennsylvania.
She was a great friend, and I miss her!