I finally started my memoir—or is it a memorial tribute?—and I worked all day. I swam early, outside and in, and skipped the puttering. Not true: I watered the plants. When I was written out for the day, I watched a Netflix piece of chewing gum and went to bed and was awake all night, up every hour. I’’ll try to finish today but groceries are coming and I’m going to get my hair cut andI I have to prepare for guests tomorrow.
I’ll try to get back today….
The groceries haven’tt arrived yet so I wrote some more and I’ll give it to you now. I’m so afraid I’ll lose it.
JUNE MIKKELSEN 1950-2022 In memoriam
As a professional writer I take pride in saying that I have never missed a deadline in my life. Until now. My friend June died in October 2022 and I didn’t know until January of 2023 so there was a reason for my lackof response. We never lived geographically close so there was another excuse for not writing. We didn’t have the proximity that makes friendship possible and while that did not make me happy, there was nothing I could do about it so I was reluctantly comfortable with long separation. Our friendship was a long separation.
But I feel so bereaved.
We met on a round the world cruise—“180 Days Around the World”. That’s what we all bought but the cruise was shortened before it began. A fire on its previous trip had sent the ship into drydock for repairs. We gathered in Singapore rather than Miami, about five weeks after we were supposed to begin. I tell you this because it led up to becoming friends with June. That started, however, with my RFH.
When I was booking there was only one cabin left in our class. Would we two go together? The agent put the three of us together on the phone so we could discuss this. To take one alone meant doubling the price. I had done this twice before, taking on a cabin mate, sight unseen, and made new friends each time, going on subsequent trips with them. One of them used to phone me, asking where I was going next. So I said sure.
Big mistake. RFH turned out to be the Roommate From Hell. I won’r go into details but if it hadn’t been for June, my trip would have been a disaster.
All the round-trippers were getting a refund on the part of the trip they didn’t take. I started planning a cruise to Easter Island. June found me talking to the agent (on board) and asked if she could join me. Certainly! She was the best part of the trip as it turned out. We didn’t get to Easter Island the following year, didn’t land because of wind and water conditions.
But I still had a trip coming to me. That would be a cruise to Alaska, leaving Seattle and returning to Vancouver a week later just in time for me to attend the annual general meeting of the Writers’ Union of Canada. I thought I could go early, and find my way to Portland, Oregon and visit June before the cruise began. I was younger (stronger) then.
But when I suggested this to June, she refused. She said she would go with me, though she had taken the trip at least once before. And she did. In terms of time together, our friendship was very short, ending when we parted in Vancouver, but it went on and so did June.
She had met a man on the long cruise, another passenger on the round-the-world trip. He was with his mother and he took very good care of her, both delightful people. It was such a long trip that we all got to know each other very well, everyone, that is, except my RFH.
TO BE CONTINUED