Time waits for no one

Sheryl Vidrine Cude
July 6, 1962 to July 27, 2009



How often have you ran into a relative or friend you haven't seen in a long time and promise to "stay in touch?"
But sometimes that promise gets shoved to the bottom of your "must-do" list. Months pass, then years. Your daily life continues, you go to work, come home, pay bills, watch TV, whatever.
Then a name might pop up and you remember, "wow, I really should call so-and-so," but you never find the time to call.
That happened last night, July 27. An unfamiliar number popped up on my phone about 9:30 p.m. and I almost didn't answer. Then I thought maybe one of my kids, who are now adults, might be calling from a friends number so I flipped open my phone.
It wasn't from someone I expected to hear from. Actually I hadn't spoke with this person in about three years.
Tina, my niece, was calling to tell me that her sister, Sheryl, had died the night before.
While choking back tears, Tina told me Sheryl, who is just two years older than me, had died of sleep apnea.
I was thinking that I had just seen Sheryl about a year ago or a little longer when my brother, her father, Al Vidrine, had died.
I think I only caught part of the conversation with Tina because in the back of my mind was the guilt of not keeping in touch.
Still shocked, I flipped around online and found my brothers obituary. He died in December 2006. That meant I hadn't seen or spoken to Sheryl or Tina since then.
That fact got me thinking back a little further to when Al became terminally ill and family gathered at the hospital. I had called Al through the years off and on. So when the family dispersed after the funeral we parted with the usual promise of staying in touch.
But we'd all drifted back into our own lives, all of us.
Now I'm planning to attend the funeral of yet another person I had promised I'd stay in touch with.
Mary Meaux