My Friend Jo-Ann

 

November 28, 2023 1:26 pm  

I just want to say I miss my friend Jo-Ann Carlton Blair, 1943-2020. 

It hit me hard today about how much I do miss her.  I have called very few people friends in my lifetime, she was one of them.

Jo-Ann never disappointed and never turned her back on me; she was straight forward, real, and direct with me.

She and I did things together that did not include our husbands, like the time she booked us a five star hotel in Buckhead with a five course meal, then a limousine to our front row seats at the Fox Theater in Atlanta to see The Phantom of the Opera! Who does that? 

When she walked into a room, everyone had to adjust to her light, for her light always shined brightly.  She most always had a gift in her hand to give to someone.  She was a great balance for me because my lips cracked when I tried to smile,  I didn't usually stretch my lips to do that.  I didn't have to do anything when she was around because she gave out the light and the warmth and I only had to stand close to her.

She found it easy to see through people without letting them know it.  People most always suspected that I was analyzing them from the onset.  She could do it and not get caught.  No matter the person who stood before her, she saw good in them.

She liked to laugh, she liked to dress well, she liked her house things, she liked and knew her neighbors, she took time with her church ladies, and she loved her family and her extended family; she also liked to find a good deal and made a successful business out of doing just that.  

She always had excitement going on about some project that seemed major to her, which I could never quite understand. 

 As Director of the  Family and Children's Agency in a Tri County Region, she saw it as large to get a single mother approved for food stamps or to get an abused child into a safe place; she saw it as large to organize events for her church as well as to stay in touch with her friends. Everything was large for her if it included people.

 She retired with so much respect and leadership that her legacy both at her work and in her church made knees quake to follow her. 

Yes, she could make major out of the small and insignificant things or she could make major out of the large and mind boggling feats.  She was so people centered that anything to do with other people was major to her.  I don't know until this day how she tolerated me.

I called her once when she lived in a small town where she and her husband was pastoring just to chat.   I said, "JoAnn, what are you doing?"  She said, " I'm just sitting on the front porch looking at the city water tank"!  I thought I would die laughing, she had such a keen sense of humor and could find something funny in almost every situation.

There are not many on this planet like my friend, Jo-Ann.  Today, as my heart is sadly missing her, I wish I could see her come to my back door one more time and smile, hug my neck and say, "Hey, Paula"!