Robin - what a sad story for your mom's friend. She obviously meant a great deal to your mom and it is so special that she named you after her.
I have a terrible freaky story, nothing nice about my story.
A tv/news story about a violent unprovoked attack of a man turned out to be the father of a childhood friend. I was sickened by the senseless brutal attack, scared that something like that could happen in our little city, and then was even more devastated to learn it was my friend's father, whom I had lost touch with when my family moved away. I remember him being a wonderful, caring, quiet man who always made me welcome in their home. It was so sad that he was so severely physically and mentally brain damaged that he would not have a fully functioning life again. The family moved away and I never heard of Jackie again. Then even more devastating news, I found out months later, one of the attackers was caught and convicted, he was a friend of ours, someone we hung out with often and he would come over for dinners and vacation with us. I considered him a "gentle giant", a big guy with a sweet, kind disposition. I will never know what happened, how did he do what he did. It haunts me to this day and I think it made me more cautious about people.
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