September 2021

     Today is National Women’s Friendship Day.  This is a wonderful time to remember and honor those women who have had such an important place in our lives.

     My first and best friend was my Mom Barbara Stevenson Walters.  I was so bonded to her that I did not see us as separate individuals till I was age 12!  This bond lasted a lifetime.  And although we often disagreed, the LOVE was always stronger than anything else! We became even closer after Dad died, and I gradually became her long-distance caregiver.  I was lost without her after she died, and that still exists today.  But I believe I will be with her again!  

     I have also been blessed by having the most incredible grandmothers,  aunts, and cousins!  I have always carried each and all in a special place in my heart, of course being closer to some than others.  I still try to see as many as possible whenever I go home to Kansas.

    In recent years, I have reconnected with several women classmates via Facebook and other social media. This has been healing for me since my self-esteem was so low in high school.  

    Throughout the years, I have maintained lifelong friendships with women in my life from my teens till now!  Some of these women are featured in pictures with me here.  I consider myself truly blessed by these relationships which have sustained me with support, humor, and so much more through life’s changes.   

  Let me close with this saying:

     “A real friend is someone who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”

Walter Winchell

Get in contact with your women friends and family in some way!  I am going to!  And THANK YOU to all the women in my life from the past and now!

BFF’s Janet & I since 1978

BFF’s Angela, me, & Mary Ellen

Cathy & I

My Best Friend, Mom.

Two sisters and BFFs

BFF Janie

Blessings,

 Carolyn

Like many of you, I remember exactly what I was doing that gorgeous sunny morning on September 11, 2001.  I was sitting at home doing Hospice paperwork.  

Suddenly, my phone rang.  Nancy, Administrative Assistant in my previous job as an RN in Radiation Oncology and typist for all my Seminary projects, asked if I had my TV on.  I told her No and she urgently said to turn it on.

As I did, I  saw what looked like a cloud of smoke pouring out of a tall skyscraper.  The voice of Katie Couric came loudly over the TV. Nancy and Katie almost simultaneously said that something had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center!  Right at that moment, I saw something that looked like a plane fly into and hit the other tower!  I stared in disbelief, my mind suddenly blank. 

 Nancy and I stayed on the phone for several minutes, not speaking.  Nancy finally shakily said that it was like being back in Oklahoma City all over again during the bombing of the F. Murrah Federal Building where she had seen and experienced the devastation. We murmured words of support. 

As the day wore on, I visited with my terminal patients, trying to bring comfort where needed while shaking inside.

My BFF Janie was in touch throughout the day as she anxiously tried to reach her oldest daughter in NYC who had just been a block away from the explosions.  It was at least  10 harrowing hours before Janie could finally reach her.  Rebecca had struggled for hours to get to her home amidst the acrid smoke, chaos,  fear, and panic that day.

Several staff finally gathered at our office that day and the next, stunned, in shock, and in grief.  My friend Judy asked if I could help with a memorial service and grief group for our staff.  We then found out that another work friend had lost her close friend when the plane she had boarded in Boston had been derailed and hit one of the World Trade Center buildings.  Everyone was affected in some way by this tragedy.

I do not remember much about that memorial service and grief group but as so often happens in the midst of shock and grief, we did.  It was a blessing to be able to share and be with others.   

One thing I do know is that nothing would ever be the same again in our country. 

 Let me close with the following Litany of Remembrance which has brought comfort to so many in the memorial and celebration of life services I have done since that infamous day.

Blessings on this day as WE REMEMBER!

Rev. Carolyn Quinn