A friend, Karen, only 51, was found dead here over the weekend

I thought I was feeling extra sad Sunday when I was making the video about pro life, but I did not find out about Karen's death until this morning. Karen was my closest neighbor for about five years, and I was concerned about her then. She ended up in the hospital with a heart attack undoubtedly caused by the diabetis she did not know she had. She fought the diagnosis, even to getting up and leaving the ICU to go home! She was a very independent soul. I was so alarmed about her inability to accept her diagnosis I would make chicken soup for her and encourage her to get on the medication by talking about my sister Ann with far worse diabetes. I remember asking her one time what her blood sugar was and she said, "Oh, 300 or so, I don't remember." I expressed lots of alarm. I just could not see her dying so young. She had also started drinking again and experienced violent mood swings under the influence, so I was trying to keep close track of her, wondering if she was going to stabilize, but she finally did and seemed to be doing well for the last two years when she finally got a bigger apartment she had wanted so long.
She and I had a mutual friend in Bob and we both spent hours talking to him. Bob was so easy to talk to. We were both extremely upset when he got cosmetic surgery for his eyelids and ended up in emergency. We were calling every hospital in the city trying to find him when we received the shocking news tht he was on life support. Imagine dying over cosmetic surgery on your eyelids. I know Bob would have to laugh at that unique cause of his demise.
I went to another friend's house this morning to find out what had happened to Karen. I was relieved to hear that she probably had the most peaceful death possible. She was found just sitting on her couch as though nothing has happened. So the cause of death was surely a heart attack or other cardiovascular accident that hit her so fast she did not even have time to move. She was staying active, going out to Sun City to visit her father quite often, and I would see her in the halls or on the bus and we would have a good chat. Karen made beautiful quilts. That was her hobby.
I am sure she is the most concerned over her father's upset at surviving his daughter. I have made contact with Bob who says he has been with Karen ever since it happened, and he will stay with her as long as he is needed. I think now that Pierre's presence here was a warning as he was also a good friend of Bob's. We all played pool together every day for two or three years, until Bob quit because of his droopy eyelids.(He couldn't see the balls he said) Instead he started learning all about computers and ran the computer lab for two or three years.
I just screamed when I heard Bob was dying, and I am sure Karen did, too. It was a shock, but I knew Karen had had big issues with her health so her death was somehow not such a shock even though she seemed far too young to die. Still she was alone in the world except for her beloved cat Freeway and her friends and her dad mostly. She did not have children. I don't know if she ever married.
I am so thankful Bob is over there, because if ever there was a good friend to her it was him. Yes, I do believe the ghosts in this old hotel wander through the place all the time. I had Ellen on my mind, too, this morning who died last summer but who played such an active role here. Now Karen has joined them, so easily, so softly, still with friends, her time to go. Not enough to hold her here, she is moving on. Goodbye Karen, Bob will take care of you until you get used to your next life.