Bopping down the sandy road in bare feet, I recognize her from the picture on Travel Talk though we'd never met.
She and her husband had been coming to St. Martin for years. They planned big gatherings with friends they'd collected through the years.
"Sugarae?" I ask pausing in front of her tiny concrete patio.
I love her name.
Sugarae is southern as it gets though she was born and lives in Portland, Maine. Her name combines sugar with rays of sunshine,
Flashing a crooked grin, she nods and invites me to sit.
"It's nice to meet you," I say shaking her hand. "I read your stuff on Travel Talk."
Travel Talk is a web site for those who love the Caribbean and traveling there. Categories are divided into islands. Clink "St. Martin" and I'm suddenly a member of people who love the place like I do.
I don't remember anything else about meeting Sugarae though it was with sadness that I read on Travel Talk that she's died.
Clicking to the Conroy-Tully Crawford Funeral Home website, I find her obituary and read.
"I didn't attend the funeral," Mark Twain quipped, "but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."
Sarah's girls asked, "How many famous people have you met?"
Looking for themselves reading Sandy Bottoms & Duct Taped Hearts they've noticed I've met Presidents, Prophets, Priests, Philanders and other people.
I marvel at the people who have graced my life. I'm humbled by those who are part of it now.
"Friendship isn't a big thing. It's a million little things," goes an old saying.
I sit staring at three little girls who are staring at me.
"I dunno," I answer taking a sip of wine. "A lot."
"What were they like," Laurel asks.
"Just like you," I reply.
And I raise my glass to the sky thanking God for everyone of them and for sugar and sunshine.
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