St. Louis loses a great - and it wasn't Stan the Man

i woke up this morning the same way a few other people i know did, to a phone call from our crying mothers.

mine was abrupt, in fact, i thought i was in trouble, "im going to make this short" she said, "ok" i replied...

and really, my generation lives in bliss because of their generation, its a fact, so i have no pre-disposition to unpleasant news.  plus, she was in what seemed to be an emotional state, and holding back something.

"Margie Sicking died last night" she said painfully.  and i was silent.

"ok" i replied... there was nothing else i could say.

"ok, i have to go" mom replied, then she hung up, obviously to let loose the tears that had been flowing since she heard.

Margie Sicking had been operated on the day before, and had a surgery my mother had gone through just two years ago.  Unfortunately, she didn't make it more than a few hours past the surgery and passed in the night, assumably quietly in her sleep, as she deserved to go.

She had lost her husband 3 years ago, and a sister each year since.  After 8 decades of being just about one of the most social people you could imagine, she was losing those in her life.

And while she had grown up in society and always been social, it was her giving nature that really made her a great person.

Her life was not perfect, she loved children more than anyone could imagine, but was unable to have any of her own.  Her husband was a genius, but like many mental giants had his own demons and always had a million projects going at a time, leaving life and home often in disarray.  And in this, she was always there for others, and became an integral part in the lives of so many that when they had sadness - she experienced sadness.

This morning I described her as a woman with no children, so instead my sister and I, and many of our friends who were the children of her friends, were her children.  She managed to send us all a card on every holiday, and every birthday, and make it to every celebration - and as children do, we all took her for granted.  She took some of us in when we would fight with our parents, she helped some of us get jobs, she was always willing to do us a favor... while rarely asking anything of us in return.  In fact, she rarely asked anyone for anything, giving was her thing.

She was a physical therapist by trade, and in 1987 when I had an accident that involved me on a skateboard and some oncoming traffic, she was there to monitor my progress and help get me back on my feet.  And helping me was just barely a glimmer in the light she brought to the world.

Countless people from refugees families adopted by our church to the disabled children of friends would owe their lives to Margaret Sicking.  But to her, it was just how you were supposed to live.

Again I am forced to wonder where we are headed as a world when I see so few from my generation living as so many did from the generation before us.  I cannot think of who from my peers will be the one who can even begin to show the world the same gift that she was.

Rest In Peace Aunt Margie, your children will miss you.