today I'm thinking of my sister Brynda... these are just a quick couple of pictures I had on my laptop already. The first was taken in Hawaii where she was stationed at Pearl Harbor. We went out dancing in Waikiki. Lord knows, you can tell it was the 80's. Haha those shoulderpads. The bottom one was taken in 1990 at my apartment. It's funny that in both pictures she is wearing my clothes. She passed away in 1993. Seventeen years ago. I'm thinking of you, Sis, and I will never forget you. Aloha! 
So you did own a red dress!
ReplyDeleteLovely sister, in these photos she has a distracted look as if she is thinking about another time and place, not quite in the moment.
I did own that red dress, and I think one other. But that was before I read Prayer for Owen Meaney. I should have said I've never owned a red dress since then. This dress she is wearing I think I only wore once. We went to a benefit premiere of "The Russia House" starring Sean Connery in San Diego. It was a benefit for Navy Relief Fund. I think they had already had the real LA premiere. Some of the actors were in attendance, but not the big name ones. Then I gave the dress to Brynda. She spent so much time in uniform that she didn't really have a lot of civilian clothes, whereas I am a "clothes horse" to a minor extent, so I would wear things once or twice and give them to her.
ReplyDeleteFrank- that's right! Whenever I see Aloha, I know she is saying "hi." You would have loved her. You would have enjoyed her sense of humor, and had loud arguments, and liked her physical toughness.
As for her expression, yeah, she looked like that most of the time. Once she became an intelligence officer, she always looked kind of haunted. The Navy really sucked her life away, I'm sad to say. She didn't know how to balance, anything. It was balls to the wall all the time. Since I've learned things, I've said she lived in a constant state of hypomania. Which was almost a requirement of her job. Sad. But I try to remember the best things, especially from childhood and the years we spent together on the drill team. I'd say she was happiest then. She should have danced more....