by Ronda Claire

Created on: September 14, 2008

As families go, my mom's side was a little closer to each other than my dad's. So when his cousin invited us to her parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary my father readily accepted. He and mom were divorced so it was he, my aunt and I who went along.

The party was held in the small town I'd known since birth. We then lived about sixty miles away, but I always enjoyed the drive down there through 'back roads' and cornfields and such. The town was surrounded by farmland and sunsets were incredible with nothing in the way. The main street has grain elevators located next to the Illinois Central tracks. A small park boasting an American flag with the stars in a circle is on the other side.

When we got to the festivities it was fun seeing so many people I literally had not seen in 20 years. I was 23 at the time and actually meeting my father's cousin for the first time, though I knew well who her parents were. I'd asked my father if she had any children and he said yes, two but he didn't know their ages.

Turned out we were quite close. Andy was just a few months older and Susie was a couple of years younger. Andy and I hit it off from the moment we met, both having an interest in news, writing, broadcast journalism.

During the afternoon he'd been contacted by the local cable station he worked for about an electrocution of a young boy. He asked me if I wanted to ride along with him and I said "yes!" if only to learn more about him and his work as well.

By the time we got to the scene there was not much to see and the youth had been taken to the hospital. I never did find out what happened to him, but through the next months Andy and I kept in some contact.

If I would call him he'd call back *if* I left a number! It wasn't like he didn't have my number, but for some reason (known only to males, I believe) he seemed not to want anyone else to know he had it. We would write on occasion, and see one another now and then when I got to town.

Because my mom "just had to meet him" (my urging) we drove down one day to Channel 6 and he didn't hesitate to come down and talk for awhile. A few weeks later I wrote him and told him that my dad and I would be moving down there. He said that was great, he'd show me around town.

When I was going to turn 30, which was not that big a deal, but you know how that goes, I remember thinking "yikes. Now what?" Then I had to laugh because Andy had turned 30 just months ahead of me. I always thought "if he can do it, so can I."

As time went on, my

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