Mary Ellen: A Tribute to a Virtual Friend

. . .My mother had a very bad heart condition. Emergency staff . . . wanted to know if my mother had been having heart attacks.

I told them as far as I knew no. I looked closely into my mother's eyes to see if there was pain. Nothing! She was chatting away . . .

Later[that day] the surgeon came in and said it was doubtful she would survive the surgery but thought she should have it for better pain and movement management post op.

For two days relatives arrived and visited thinking this may be the last time they would see her alive. For my mother, she was enjoying this immensely.

Finally it was time to move her to the operating room. As they wheeled her out there was silence, then a voice muttering from the stretcher could be heard: " You're not getting rid of me this easily."

Of course, I mostly knew Mary Ellen through her writing, and I so enjoyed those armchair adventures while reading her articles. Whether it was the sights of old London or the remains of a Roman road or yet an unspoiled Canadian landscape, she always told her stories simply and beautifully.

And travel she did. . . all over the place: Athens, Santorini, Olympia, Patros, Katalon and Rhodes in Greece, Ephesus and the south coast of Turkey by sailboat, Egypt, Pompeii and all of Italy and London and so many other places.

I always envied not only her frequent globetrotting adventures, but also her ability to cope with changing landscapes, people, languages and customs. Having traveled a bit myself, I can tell you that travel can be exhausting physically and emotionally.

I especially loved her descriptions of Italy, and one of my favorites of her articles is about her stay at A Farmhouse in Tuscany:

It is a pleasant sight that greets our eyes, as we get our first glimpse of the traditional Tuscan stone house, with its red tile roof and golden brown, stone walls. The house is surrounded by olive groves. It is a pretty place with a small flower garden in front and pots of bright red geraniums here and there.

I appreciated her wry sense of humor, which occasionally showed up in her writing. She noted in the article above that in addition to the very Tuscan tile roof and olive groves there was "On one side. . .a stone shed and the other a

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