Sweet Potato Love...

Some years back, I was browsing around the bookstore, and saw this book, "The Sweet Potato Queen's Book of Love" by Jill Conner Browne...
On the cover were a group of women dressed up in the most outlandish outfit's I'd ever seen !
Big red hair, BIGGER BOOBS, sequins and majorette boots !
I'm like..."What in THE world" !!!
First of all, it was the Sweet Potato Queen thing that drew me to it...see, my Momma alway's called herself "The Sweet Potato Queen" because she HATED sweet potatoes !
I remember her tellin' about how they walked 200 miles to school in the snow, rain, sleet....whatEVER...carrying with them a sweet patato and a biscuit, in a syrup can for their lunch everyday...consequently, she always said, " I am the sweet patato queen...If I never eat another sweet patato, it'll be TOO SOON " !!!
I LOVE them, but she wouldn't eat them, and never bought them.

Anyway, I picked up this book..took it home, and read it !
One of the most amazing book's I've ever read...AND, turn's out, I KNEW the author...well, used too anyway !
Back in the day, when thing's were usually alway's REALLY foggy, if you know what I mean !
We hung around some of the same people, and met several times, but that was about the same time I left Jackson too, so we never became what you would call friends...but, I was in instant awe of Jill, her message , and her people !
I went to her website, which housed "The Messageboard of Love" at the time, and met some of them...this HUGE following of some of the funniest, wittiest, dearest women on the planet.
I knew immediately, I had found "My People" !

One of the first people to greet me was Dutchy...an amazing little sprite of a woman, who had the MOST energy ! She absolutely vibrated with life ! FUNNY and kind and compassionate, are just a few of the words that describe Dutchy, and they don't do her justice.
You just had to know her.
Well, a couple of years into my experience there, Dutchy got cancer.
She fought the good fight !
She fought hard, but she didn't win...or maybe she did...I guess it's all in how you look at it.
She was a shining example of how one deals with something like that with grace and dignity though, and she taught us all a lesson , not in dying...but in LIVING !
Dutchy still lives...in the hearts of so many.

Another fabulous person I met there, was Pateeta.
Pateeta is another one who can make you split your britches, laughing...
Funny and CRAZY...good crazy though....I am smiling right now, as I type this, thinking about how many times she has made me laugh.
Funny and kind and compassionate...Pateeta took care of Dutchy during her battle with cancer...there for her, when no one else could be...
She taught us all a lesson in caring...what it means to REALLY do it.

Now, Pateeta is fighting her own battle with Cancer...
She has for sometime now...and through it all, she has remained...funny, witty, kind, compassionate, full of grace and dignity...and she is teaching us another lesson in love and living...and, how to do it.

My heart is heavy today, as I think of Patty and what she is going through...and, I pray so hard, that she is comfortable...in no pain...with all her loved one's near...
My heart is also full of joy too though...the joy of knowing her...
I am so grateful that God saw fit to lead me to Pateeta and Dutchy, and all of the wonderful women and men, I have met through Sweet Patato Love...