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I do not remember one day of my life when I didn’t love my “twin cousin” with my whole heart. She was my best buddy and we shared everything – sometimes willingly, sometimes not – but share we did. She had a lightning quick wit, a passion for good stories (she was a GREAT storyteller), and a heart as big as the world.
Before the family moved to Indiana, we spent a lot of time together. We acted out “Roy Rogers & Dale Evans,” “Sky King” and some jungle serial on TV that starred two girls, one with blond hair and one with black hair, and Bobbie and I fought over who played the part of the girl with dark hair!
We also got into trouble together. The time that stands out in my memory was the time we were staying with Grandma Ousborn and made up a stack of mudpies in the side yard. I don’t recall which one of us came up with the idea it, but one of us threw a mudpie onto the side of her house and it stuck! It looked like a polka dot to us, so we decided to cover Grandma’s house with polka dots. Make a mudpie, splat! against the side of the house. We spent the afternoon decorating Grandma’s house with mud pies one splat at a time. We giggled, we hee-hawed, and wore our scrawny, little-girl throwing arms out. We thought Grandma would like the effect as much as we did. Not so.
She put us both into her big tub upstairs, filled it with bubble bath, then called our parents to come get us. We both made a big show of our apologies, but when they put us in the car, she cut her pretty eyes at me and put her hand over her mouth to hide a tee-hee as they drove away.
Bobbie will always be with me because love never dies. Now she has slipped out of her ravaged body and taken wings. I have no doubt where she is. Her hair is shining, her eyes are bright, and she is as she was: all love.
Tight hugs and sweet kisses to you, Bobbie Nell.
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