That’s Carolyn Nancy Brickhouse Irwin on the far right.  She was 93 years old when she died last week.  She and my mom (who has her hands on the shoulders of the lady in blue) were best friends for over eighty years.  Can you imagine?  Losing Carolyn has been rough on my mom.  But I loved what Carolyn’s family wrote about her in her obituary.  They wrote: She was complex.  She was funny.  She was proud.  She was tough.  She was magnificent.  She was, simply put, one of a kind.  To know Nancy was to be seen, to be remembered, and to be loved.  She was, and always will be, a force to be reckoned with.  Her spirit lives on in those she guided, nurtured, and cheered on through the years.  That’s quite a tribute.  When my sister and I were little, we would play house, and argue over who was going to be “Carolyn Brickhouse.”  We only knew she was my mom’s really cool friend.  With a really cool name.  I’m sorry for all the people who loved her that she’s gone – especially my mom.