Tuesday, October 20, 2020
My heart goes out to Stephen and Virginia's siblings and nieces and nephews. You lost a wonderful woman. Virginia Slowik has been my close friend since April 2003. I placed Saxon, a young Rescue dog, with her and Stephen. I remember that day when I brought him to them and she made me lunch, pasta fagioli. That was a first time that an adopter offered me lunch. We spent several hours visiting and me watching them interact with Saxon. It wasn't long before Virginia and Stephen became good friends, like family. What a gift an Airedale brought into my life - a lifelong friend. We spoke almost every day and sometimes given the situation, we might speak for just a minute or two and that was it. She took over ATCMNY Airedale Rescue and Adoption when I left NY to move to Maryland and was a strong supporter of ATCMNY volunteering in many capacities. I'm not going to say a 17 1/2 yr old friendship is gone. I believe it lives on. She put up a strong fight the past year, year and a half trying to overcome physical obstacles caused by this disease, cancer, and the side effects wrought by chemo. The only consolation in this loss is that my friend is now pain free and reunited in Heaven with her parents and her beloved Saxon, her first Airedale. Her death has left a deep deep hole in my life. I miss you, VA, but we will meet again someday, my friend. I saw her about a year ago this time before she started her radiation. It's the last time I saw her other than the photos she sent me of her journey. I borrowed the saying below from an Airedale website:
Your life was a blessing
Your memory a treasure
You are loved beyond words,
And missed beyond measure.
