This is a extremely hard post for me personally to write today. I had to wait so as to be able to truly pull my thoughts together. Last year during the throes of HB 1468 I met so many people at times I truly did not know how I was going to remember every one. One in particular that I do remember was a little lady that walked up to me and absolutely unloaded on the Animals Rights folks. She was a hundred pounds of dynamite in a small package. Little did I know!!!
As my odyssey led me to ICAW that little package of dynamite didn’t forget me either. I started getting one e-mail after another from her. How invaluable every single thing she sent me was over the last two years. I have always talked about the tenets of the Indiana Council for Animal Welfare, "we can agree to disagree" "i may not like what you do but who am i to tell YOU what to do". Now I had a AKC Purebred show breeder on our side who got it. For over a year I had no idea where Sheila lived. One day I especially needed some help (typing over 200 words a minute is a skill that I do not have).
Sheila answered my e-mail with "Why don’t you just come over!" as it turned out she was less than 5 minutes from where I usually write from. She knew it, I didn’t. The rest is history.
As our relationship kicked into full gear little did I know what I had gotten myself into. I truly found a kindred spirit, we loved food, movies, animals and freedom. In the last part of this Winter Sheila just didn’t feel good, come to find out the cause was stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Everyone always talks about someone they know not complaining about their lot in life. Sheila truly didn’t. I am a cancer survivor myself and found it quite interesting that we never talked about cancer.
We talked about life, always about life. Not in a maudlin way just how we enjoyed it and were not going to let the Animals Rights crazies take it away from us. Many a weekend watching movies I knew nothing about, Sheila cooked and our banter was non-stop. Personally I knew what was coming, I could see it in her eyes. Still she refused to slow down when the rodeo was in Clermont she went by herself because I couldn’t go with her. When I saw her later that week she pulled out a picture of her sitting on top of a Texas Longhorn at the rodeo. She told me "I probably should not have done that but I just wanted to". That picture was taken approximately six weeks before she passed.
Each day got a little longer and harder for her and culminated with her passing last Tuesday 8/17/2010. I went to see her in hospice and the one thing she would open her eyes about, was news on the Animals Rights front. No matter what she whispered, "carry on this battle". Sheila you have my word, " I WILL". Most of you will have not known my dear sweet friend, but she made an indelible mark on me and for that I am forever grateful. Good Bye Darlin!!
