National D-Blog Day

(Today is National D-Blog Day. Every D-blog post has to be D-related, so I'll put my regular posts on hold for this)

Just a day like any other day.
I'd skipped out on a precalculus class that evening to go to the local insulin-pumpers meeting.
Veggies
Dip
Diet Soda
Fruit and...
Friends
Everything healthy, of course. (to deter individuals like myself, who absolutely would eat cookies/cake/junk food if it were offered)
Everything was there- yet something vital was missing. Or rather, someone.
I wondered about it, until(at the end of the meeting) the CDE told us why.
Just like that,gone that same day.And I thought, perhaps this was the most intelligent skipping of class that I had ever done. Otherwise,I'd have not known about it for months. And then I cried, all the way home.

Two days later I was at High Mass, rather a first for a Baptist...
It was crowded in the small chapel,standing room only for the latecomers. Which I most decididly was.

Candlelight sparkled against the stained glass windows, the chapel pews were lined with flowers. Outside, a light, chilly rain was falling. It was a overcast day, matching for a funeral.

People begun filing past the casket.

"How did you know her?" the priest,(who'd come up beside me) asked gently.

I start.

"She was-the best nurse. At the diabetes pediatric clinic. I knew her from there."

"I see," he nods. "You can go see her, if you want."

And I say my final goodbyes.

I still miss you,Andi- you were the best thing to happen for over 20 years worth of pediatric diabetes patients. You understood teenage D's like no one else at that place.
Diabetes isn't the only disease that needs cured, cancer also makes the list. And on this day, the anniversary of your death, I remember you + others like you who made the early years of D, just a bit easier.
This post is dedicated to you.