Too late....

A couple of hours ago I received a short e-mail from an unknown person but with a known person's name in the subject. Reading it quickly I realised that a pen friend of the last one and a half year died just before Christmas.
I burst into tears over the computer and couldn't stop myself.
I didn't know Jackie for a very long time. In fact I didn't even know her face as she had not sent me a photo of hers and we had only exchanged a couple of letters,mainly because of  my continuous lack of time.
Two years ago in an effort to try to reconnect with my snail mail past I had my name and address published in the English Papercraft magazine in the pen friends ads column.
Jackie and other ladies from the UK answered but I again was late in trying to decide who to write to and who not to and eventually I answered all of them.
We didn't have much time to get to know each other better.
But I had the time to learn that she was 57 years old, had three children and seven grandchildren and that she loved crafts,especially papercrafts.She loved ATCs(Artists Trading Cards) and pigs.
And she suffered from ovarian cancer and was doing chemotherapy!And she was fighting it!
She was happy to know me and to teach me  how to make ATCs.She was even willing to collect sea glass for me from her nearby beach.And she even sent me cards of lighthouses to show me her area as I had told her I love lighthouses!
For the holidays  I prepared a letter for her with all my news, Christmas card and a little crossstitched pig fridge magnet. She never had the chance to see it as my letter arrived ....too late.

The funny thing is that having her in my mind I stitched another pig fridge magnet for her a couple of days ago (of which I was telling you in my blog) and I was planning to post it one of these days!...Too late!

I am keeping the second pig fridge magnet on my magnetic board in her memory.