Linda and I became friends because we were neighbors and had daughters about the same age. I saw her just about every day. I m a coffee drinker and she was a tea drinker. I would go so far as to say that she was a tea-oholic, a chain tea drinker. She didn't take her tea with sugar, just a dribble (the tiniest dribble) of milk. I remember buying her a really tiny pitcher for her milk. She used it, too. We had a lot of fun together. We joined a bowling league and bowled together once a week for about 7 years. Linda was very attractive but she was troubled by her teeth. She knew she needed dental work but her three children always came first. Her teeth were bothering her, though, and so one day when she was at my house, I told her to go home and not to call me until she had made an appointment to see a dentist. A new "discount" dental facility had just opened nearby and I had suggested she give them a try. Maybe she could make payment arrangements if the work she needed was costly.

Linda called me within the hour to tell me that she had an appointment with a dentist. I was happy for her. The day of her appointment came and I was anxious to know how it went. She was gone for a long time and I couldn't understand what could be taking so long. Finally her husband called to tell me that Linda was in the hospital. As it turned out, the dentist discovered cysts in her gums. He immediately referred her to a specialist who made the diagnosis. She had been diagnosed with leukemia. Apparently, leukemia is often discovered in this way. I didn't really know what leukemia was but I soon found out the seriousness of it all.

Linda started her treatments, which included weekly transfusions. I drove her to Sloan Kettering in NYC for some of these treatments. Through it all Linda was optimistic and thankful for each new day. Her main concern was for her children. They were all still very young. She died in Sloan Kettering in NYC, within a year of being diagnosed. She was 36 years old.

One day, not too long after she died, I happened to be looking out my front door and a car pulled up in front of her house. It was the light blue station wagon that she used to drive. The doors opened and her husband and the three children got out and started walking toward their house. Then the passenger front door opened and another person got out and started walking toward the house. I stared because from the back it looked like Linda. How could that be! Is it really Linda? I watched this other person follow the rest. Her husband and children went into the house. When the other person got to the door she turned, looked at me, smiled and waved, before, she too, went into the house. I was stunned. I remember standing there for what seemed the longest time trying to process what I had just seen. I think that this was Linda's way of telling me that she was okay and still watching after her children. Maybe it was actually a dream or maybe it was real. As the years go by I just don't know. I do know that, whatever it was, it was very comforting. I never saw her again.

Learn more about this author, Nannette Dell.
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