It's Just Not Right

Photo courtesy of Lewie

Craig and Dianne in Key West

It's been a year of loss for us. Mom O'Malley, Adela Mulligan and now we have to say farewell to another good friend.

Craig left us yesterday, suddenly and with no warning. He was about my age, seemed to be in the perfect health and was very, very happily married to Dianne. They had a relationship to be envied and it was too damn short.

None of us can wrap our minds around it. I keep going back to Key West and the great times we just had there with Craig and Dianne. One night, we were all squished in at a table and he reached down to rub Dianne's leg. Only it wasn't her leg he got. It was mine. The look on his face when he realized it was priceless - he was so shocked and embarrassed. Dianne and I both just laughed at him: no harm, no foul.

I think back to Parrot Grande where Craig made a model seaplane (he was totally a plane guy) and offered it up for a special raffle for our friend, Mark Mulligan. He was so proud of it and rightly so. It was a thing of beauty. Mary Ellen won the raffle and she gave Mark the plane for his kids. I'm sure that plane will have even more meaning to Mark now.

I think about how he took pictures at our events and loved to show them to us all. It was rare to get one of him because he was so busy capturing every one else on film.

And now, he's gone. And it makes no sense. And she's devastated and we're all at a loss.

Lou came up with just the right phrase to wish Craig's spirit well:

Soar on, Tree Top Flyer.

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