Georgia On My Mind

As we drove up A1A, I snapped this photo of the Fort Lauderdale beach from the car.

It is with a breaking heart and tears in my eyes that I write today. This morning, we got a call from my cousin, Carl, from St. Louis. He told us that my dear cousin, Georgia, his sister, had died at 9:10 a.m. CST. Georgia, 59, had been battling breast cancer for the past 13 years. She was never able to get into remission so she struggled with grace and fortitude with bout after bout of chemotherapy and experimental medicines. Her last year was very challenging with many ups and downs culminating in a diagnosis of bone cancer. We had last communicated a few weeks ago when she wrote that her e-mail address had changed. She will remain my role model for will power. She willed herself to live everyday of those 13 years. I will love her forever.

With the sad news, we had a very low keyed day for us. We drove into Fort Lauderdale and walked a bit of their Riverwalk, a beautiful walk on the New River, yes that is the name of the river. We spotted a dockside restaurant across the river so we drove to Shirttail Charley's for a quiet lunch on the river. We enjoyed watching the huge yachts, sailboats, water taxis, tour boats and even a mobile fuel boat that services the boats docked along the waterways. After lunch, we drove A1A to look at the beautiful beaches of Fort Lauderdale. We will be leaving the area before Spring Break starts; it will be impossible to get around at that time, so we will enjoy our time here while it is quiet.