Over the past 37 years I have written many obituary columns for special people in my life. Today I am writing about the best neighbor my wife Judy and I have ever had. Vickie Bramlett-Killion passed away Monday from a long battle with cancer. With her passing Heaven gained a special person.
From her days as a schoolteacher, involvement in the church and community activities, Vickie had many friends.
I have known her for many years, mostly because we attended the same church. But it was more recently that we became close friends. She and her husband Al had just moved into the condo across the street from us. We were at a community association meeting when I spotted Al and introduced myself. That was the start of a beautiful relationship.
Unfortunately, after a few years, far too few, Al developed lung cancer and passed away. That broke our hearts and Judy, and I became even closer to Vickie. In good weather Vickie, Judy and I would sit on our front porch in the evening as much as four or five nights a week and talk. Vickie could keep us entertained as much as we could keep her mind off her health problems. We looked forward for evenings to come so we could spend time spent together.
As if losing Al wasn’t bad enough, soon after his death Vickie was stricken with lung cancer. Like Al, she battled hard to survive it. Treatment after treatment, the pain and suffering continued to get worse. Even in that condition we would spend many enjoyable evenings together. She could brighten any dark day.
She and Al got a little dog a few years ago from the animal shelter. They called it Sophie. After Al was gone that little dog meant more than ever to Vickie. Sophie became part of our evenings together. It was her wish that if she should die, she wanted us to have Sophie. So now we have the most perfect little dog ever and Sophie will keep the spirit of Al and Vickie alive with us.
Along with us, Vickie’s death has affected many friends and especially her family. When you think about a good person, an excellent neighbor and a person who loved Jesus, then that person is Vickie Killion.
This is a hard column for me to write because I am on my second battle with lung cancer, and I have seen how awful it is. Many in my family have died from it as have many friends. Fourteen years ago, I lost part of my right lung to cancer and three years ago cancer was once again spotted in the same lung. So far treatments have been successful.
But health problems have caused me to do something I didn’t ever want to do, that is, now at age 85 tell Terry Forcht that I could no longer be active at this newspaper. The hard part was telling Terry because in almost 38 years he has never said a word that upset me, but rather his encouragements made me want to do better. It is not just me that enjoys working for him, no, Terry has a staff that feels the same way. I would do it all over again.
But it is not the end for me. I will stay in touch with the operation and occasionally write a column. I plan to turn over the publisher’s duties at the end of the year.
