Ain't Life Grand!

Yesterday, Tony and I left the rescue ranch at noon, to go to Lindy's memorial service in Utopia and we locked our gate and left Frank in charge of babysitting our dogs.

On our way over to Utopia I told T. that I wasn't going to cry, because I knew that Lindy wouldn't want it that way, because she and I had once talked about funerals years ago.

Lindy's memorial service was beautiful and the Baptist church, where it was held, was filled up and it was standing room only for over fifty people, who didn't arrive early enough to get a seat. As the organist played beautiful music, I sat between Tone and Maribeth waiting for the service to begin and then I teared up as I looked at a beautiful, large projected picture of Lindy up on a screen, in her younger days, sitting happily on her beloved horse smiling and waving, as if to say, "Ain't life grand!" And then tears of sadness filled my eyes as I thought about all of the fun times that we had shared, because whenever we were together, either on horseback or sitting in the Lost Maples Cafe or inside my trailer—all we ever did was laugh way too much about life and ourselves. In fact, we had so much fun together, I know that I could write an hilarious book about our exciting and crazy fun-filled adventures.

After Maribeth, Tony and I had paid our respects to the the family, we went outside to talk to Maribeth for just a few minutes, because we had told her before the service had started, that we needed to get back home pronto, but that's not exactly how it turned out and I am so glad that it didn't.

As it turned out T. and I had a wonderful time outside the church visiting with many of our dear old friends that we had sadly left behind, once we had moved here—over nine years ago.

An hour later after howdies and hugs, too much laughing and remembering and catching up with our friends latest good news, we reluctantly climbed into Trigger and headed back home. And all that Tone and I could talk about on our way home was how great it was to have seen all of them and how happy we were for them and what a beautiful service they had done for Lindy Lou Padgett, one of my favorite people.

Forty two miles later, we walked inside the trailer and thanked Frank for babysitting our rescue ranch and then I called Kinky. "Hi, Kinky. We just got back. What time do you want to leave?"

"Let's leave in about thirty minutes..."

Thirty minutes later, at four-thirty, we picked up Kink and headed over to Steve's Barbecue, in Buttermilk. And the minute that we arrived at his ranch—we had a total blast! It was fun meeting all of his interesting friends and eating some of the best food that we have ever eaten!

Today has been great, because this afternoon at four o'clock—Mary-Ann was adopted and has found her forever fantastic home, to a lovely family!

Y'all have a great evening!

Godspeed, Lindy Padgett! You Were Loved By Many!

This morning, right after I did The Harley Show, my dear friend Maribeth Couch called me from Utopia and I knew before she said a word that our dear friend Lindy Padgett had finally lost her long battle to cancer. "Nancy, Lindy passed away yesterday and..."

My heart hurts tonight because I loved Lindy so much as did Tony, Maribeth and everyone that had the honor to have known her. She was the very first friend that I had when I moved to Utopia when I moved there in 1995. She was a very spiritual person and she had the greatest sense of humor, but I had to take Lindy in small doses to protect my health, because she always made me laugh so much—my back would ache for days after seeing her, because she was so upbeat and funny. 


I will miss Lindy until the day I step on my own rainbow and I am grateful that I was so lucky to have been touched by this angel.  Godspeed, Lindy, I will never forget you and the many fun times that we shared while riding your horses and the laughs at the Lost Maples Cafe and over at my mini ranch. You'll be missed and thank you for being my dear friend. Love Always, Nancy