Linda Lou

This is Linda Lou and me up at BYU Women's Conference in April this year.  We've been friends since the first week of 10th grade at Mtn. View. We probably would have been friends even earlier in life, but she went to Poston and I went to Kino for junior high, so Mtn. View was the place of our first meeting.   A mutual friend, Melissa Bunker, threw a huge back to school party the first weekend of school.  That would have been August 1987 if I'm figuring that right.  Yep, I think that's right.  Anyway, Linda was already 16 (one of the older kids with a July birthday), so she actually drove herself to the party.  Most of the rest of us had to find alternative transportation because we had not yet reached the golden age of 16 and been blessed with our own wheels.  So...long story short, we talked quite a bit at the party and she offered to give my friend, Karen, and I a ride home afterwards.  Truly, we thought we might die as she pulled into our driveway.  A crazy fast driver would be an understatement :)  Thankfully, she mellowed out significantly in her old age.   And that was the beginning a beautiful friendship.  We've been the best of friends ever since.  22 years and counting.

This picture is real gem.  Nice bangs all the way around.  I'm pretty sure this was Spring 1989.  It was taken after one of our high school softball tournament games.  Pictured above is Linda, Karen, Stacy, Kelli & Tara.

This is a picture of my 4 very best friends growing up.  Julie, my favorite best friend cousin, who grew up with me two houses down, Karen Kottke Green, my best bud since 5th grade, Linda Lou who I introduced above, and my #1 bro, Michael.   Since my birthday is on January 4th, my usual teen-years birthday parties were something a little extra special - an annual ski trip.  I love to ski!  So each year, my incredible mom would take my brother, me, and a handful of my closest friends up to Sunrise to ski for a couple of days.  Pretty awesome, eh?  One year, my mom had to come and bail Linda out of a mess as the ski patrol police guys were about to kick her off the hill for having a forged lift ticket.  That's a whole other crazy story in itself that I'll save for some post all its own...

My love of skiing grew as I got older, too.  When Linda and I were in college (me at ASU and Linda at BYU), I'd never miss an opportunity to come up to visit her for a good week during January.  Fortunately, ASU always started a little later in the month, so I could be up there for a week without missing any school.  And I was usually successful talking Linda into missing a class or two here and there so that we could hit the slopes.  Such ski bunnies were we.  I need to find a couple of those college days ski pics.  

One of our most hilarious college ski memories was a day we went up to Park City to ski.  It had been snowing cats and dogs for days and the powder was out of this world.   As we approached the kiosk to buy our lift tickets, two gals who had purchased week long passes were on their way home and still had a day left on their passes.  So they offered them to us for free.  Sweet!  So we hopped on the lift and embarked on our crazy day of skiing (if you can call it that).  On our first run, we were literally in thigh-deep powder the whole way down.  We were laughing so hard, we were crying.  Or maybe it was the other way around :).  But seriously, it was insane.  Our legs burned so bad from trudging through that powder we thought we might just die.  So we stuck to more groomed runs after that, but the snow was still unbelievable.  It snowed like mad.  I'm pretty sure we enjoyed a nice long lunch and hot chocolate in the lodge that day, scoping out the cute college ski boys.  So many fun memories with Linda Lou on the slopes.

Obviously, this is Lin & me on my wedding day.  Still not sure why I thought those yellow bridesmaids dresses were cute, but then that was 13+ years ago, so who knows.

Linda finished at BYU with a degree in broadcast journalism (I think that's the name), and started working for KSL, the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake.  She eventually met and married a terrific guy named, Russ Parry, who we all loved.  Unfortunately, life dealt Linda a hand of cards she couldn't win, and things didn't work out like she'd dreamed. However, Linda was blessed with a terrific son from that marriage.  His name is Jacob and he is now 9 years old.

This is a picture of Linda and her son, Jacob at the beach.  Three summers ago, they came over to Carlsbad with us to beach camp.  They loved it and so did we.  The only bad thing was that they woke up the last morning with a tent full of ants.  Not so great.  But after Linda thoroughly emptied and scrubbed that tent, it was all good again.  We are both hoping that next summer they'll be able to come and camp with us again.  Such good times.

This is Lin and her fiance at the time (now hubby), Daniel Hardwick, at our Friday the 13th party in 2006.  They came as Nacho Libre and the nun, Encarnacion.  So stinkin' funny.  Too bad Daniel had his mask off for this picture.

This is Linda and I at her bridal shower almost 3 years ago.  Doesn't she look beautiful?  I love this picture of her.

This is our dear friend, Brenda Bulloch Johnson, Lin and me at Linda's wedding reception in November 2006.

This is one of my most crazy funny friends, Stacy, who I've known and loved since elementary school at MacArthur, and Lin.  We are at Karen's baby shower (summer 2008).

In March this year, a group of our high school girl friends got together with our families over at Gene Autry Park in Mesa for a little BBQ.  It was so good catching up with everyone and seeing how all of our kids had grown.  We need to do that more often for sure.  In this picture (from left) is: Karen Kottke Green, Tami Richeson, Tara Richards Lehr, Stacy Ennis Pedersen, Linda Ross Hardwick, and me.  All of us except for Linda played high school softball together at Mtn. View.  Linda was there at most of our games, cheering us on.

This is Linda's little man again, Jacob.  I took this picture in March of this year, just a month or so before he turned nine.  We've been praying every day and night for Linda Lou and Jacob this past week.   Jacob's dad, Russ, passed away last week.  He didn't show up for his regular Wednesday night visit with Jacob, which is so out of the ordinary as that is always the highlight of Russ' week.   After confirming that no one had talked to him in the previous few days, his family called the police to do a welfare check at Russ' apartment the next morning.  So sadly, the police found him dead at home.  So young.  Only in his early 40's.  What a trial it has been for them as they've tried to help Jacob deal with the very unexpected loss of his dad.  I can't imagine being only 9 and losing a parent.  Heck, I can't imagine it now at the age of 37.  I'm not sure I'll ever be able to imagine it until it happens, which I pray is a very, very long time away. Thankfully, Linda has been able to talk to a good child psychiatrist this week to help give her some direction and help.  I've cried a lot for Linda Lou and Jacob this past week, but my tears are but a drop in the bucket compared to those shed by them I'm sure.  I am so thankful for my very dear friend of 22+ years, Miss Linda Lou, and hope that our faith and prayers are heard on their behalf.  I love you so much, Lin!

They are driving up to Salt Lake this weekend to attend Russ' funeral services on Monday.  Be safe and know that so many of us are keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.