A friend of mine passed away suddenly a little more than a year ago. While she had some health issues, her death was completely unexpected, coming at a great shock to her family and friends.
Not long before her death, she had given me several jars of pickles made from cucumbers from her garden. She enjoyed pickling and canning, and over the years she had also given me pickled eggs, pickled beets and salsa.
Mostly, however, she gave me pickled cucumbers in the old-fashioned, sour style. Her husband liked only sweet pickles, but she had grown up making sour pickles and was glad to share them with folks who appreciated them.
I recently opened the last jar, and I was struck yet again by the suddenness of her passing. As long as I had an unopened jar of her pickles, it seemed, in an odd way, that she was still alive. But I know that she wanted folks to enjoy her pickles, and as the jar is emptied, I think back on our friendship and how fortunate her friends and family were to have her in our lives.