Saying Goodbye to Jo

I looked through the blog archives and could only find one picture of Jo, despite the fact that we've spent at least one afternoon a month together for the past 11 years. The picture is fuzzy, and it's not a very good one, not proper at all for a tribute. So we'll have to make do with what I can tell you about her. Jo was always sweet. Always kind. Always generous. Always dryly humorous. And she was nearly always working. I would never, ever, have thought that she was turning 80. I would have put her in her late 60's, if I had thought to tag her with an age, which I never did. It wasn't until I read her obituary that I found out that she'd been a Physician's Assistant. I knew that she spent much of what could have been her retirement years working as an on-call nurse. I knew that her energy and good will seemed boundless. I know that her family and her church were very important to her. She had no children of her own, but she doted on her nieces and nephews, knitting scarves and hats and mittens for all of them. And she put us to shame with her charity knitting- always knitting dish cloths and towels and scarves.

I missed the last two knitting group meetings because I was on the road (first in Asheville, and then in SoCal), so I do not know if Jo had been ailing during my absence. I hope not. I hope she was busy and happy and knitting and working right until the end.

This morning, Knitters, Etc. will say goodbye to Jo. We're going to miss her terribly.