Naming My Scale For Shedding Light

We met in 1953. I was 8 and she was 7. She was always my friend.

We went through school together, best friends to the end. She went to college in Iowa and I headed for Kansas. We both looked forward to summers and catching up.

I married in 1967 and she was my maid of honor. The love of her life was drafted and sent to Germany and she followed him and married him there. When he was sent to Viet Nam she came home and visited me in Kansas. She was angry with Richard Nixon for lying to all Americans right then, he had recently announced not one more American citizen would be sent from American soil to Viet Nam. Tricky Dick emptied all the bases in Europe and sent every one of those men to Viet Nam. Her Jack was one of them.

She was lucky – he came home or was she lucky, he was haunted by what he saw and did while in Viet Nam forever.

When I was in the hospital having my first child in Kansas, she was in a hospital in Boston having a transplant she lovingly called Sidney the Kidney. The oldest living transplant back then (1970) was 8 years. What was she going to do with her life and how much life did she have?

They decided to not have children – not knowing how long she would live. Both were well educated and had great jobs so they worked in Boston and planned. They retired at the age of 35, sold everything they owned including their home in New Hampshire and moved on to their sailboat. The boat took them south and they traveled and lived on the boat for five years. At the end of five years they were thinking of moving back on to land and starting a new life. She wasn’t dead yet and every trip to Boston for her checkups indicated she would live a long life.

Hurricane Hugo sealed the deal. They moved their boat named Limerick inland to save her and the hurricane went inland long enough to pick up her mast and crash it down on top of their boat. They moved to land in South Carolina.

On land she found a job quickly and lived for a long time enjoying her life in the south. But not long enough for me.

Unfortunately with her medical history, childhood illnesses that affected her kidneys, and then all the drugs she had to take to keep her new kidney running, plus a couple of cancers and treatments her health started to fade around 2003. She wrote and told me her body had deleted chromosome #8 and I asked if that was serious – she replied “I think they are all pretty important”

She was my friend and confidant, someone who loved me and encouraged me to do what I wanted to do. I miss her every day and I know if she were still alive she would be telling me daily via email – you go girl!

And because she was a constant support for ME and because she Loved Me, encouraged ME and because I know she would be here now for me if she could,

I HAVE NAMED MY SCALE -  JUDY.

For Shedding Light (the group) Mariana has asked us to name our scale. Mine is now my best friend.

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Liston, Judy GEORGETOWN, S.C. Judy Liston, 57, wife of James C. Jim Liston, II, died Friday, July 30, 2004 at her residence. She was born October 9, 1946 in Niskayuna, N.Y., a daughter of Julia Reese Bailey and the late Horace H. Bailey. Mrs. Liston received her bachelor of arts in English from Iowa Wesleyan College. She retired from Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company of Boston where she served as business manager of the college textbook division. She was a member of the League of Women Voters and enjoyed reading as her hobby. She and her husband spent 5 years cruising the East Coast and the Bahamas aboard their sailboat, Limerick, before coming ashore at Georgetown. A resident of Georgetown for 14 years, she also was Executive Director of Keep Georgetown Beautiful. Surviving are her husband; her mother of Kingwood, Texas; one brother, Charles Bailey of Ballston Spa, N.Y.; one sister, Susan Fischer of Kingwood, Texas; three nieces; one nephew. Memorial funeral services will be held Thursday, August 5, 2004 at 7 p.m. in Graham Funeral Home Chapel, Georgetown, S.C. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to Tidelands Community Hospice, 2591 North Fraser Street, Georgetown, SC 29440. Published in the Albany Times Union on 8/3/2004.