In Memory of Mary Lee Forsythe

It has been a sad day for me today. Earlier I received a call from a member of my Asheville Guild that one of our own had passed away. Mary Lee Forsythe has died from a massive heart attack. Those of you not fortunate enough to know Mary Lee have missed knowing her kind and generous soul. She always had a smile and a hug for those of us from Charlotte who made the trek up to Asheville to attend a guild meeting. She was a very talented clay artist and had even tackled silver smithing. Something I had hoped to get her to teach to me. After all we had plenty of time didn't we? Well as God sometimes does He had other plans for Mary Lee. We had also planned to go together to Cabin Fever and Synergy at the end of February. I was looking forward to getting to know her better. I am sure we would have had a fun filled time together. At our last guild meeting she showed me some necklaces that she had made using some of the beads I had made. I told her that we made a great team. I could make the beads and she could string them. She knew that finishing things is not my strong point. I meant to take pictures of the necklaces. Oh well we had plenty of time for that didn't we? Please go to the Blue Ridge Polymer Clay Guild site to read some very nice words (better than I can say) about Mary Lee.

Mary Lee's passing has made me think a lot about the friendships I have made because of polymer clay. I have a friend who sent me a note talking about the friends we have. It talked about how when we were young we had our "best friend". She was the one we played with, had sleep overs with, talked about boys to and everything else you did together. Now we have different sets of friends. I still have my close friends that I share everything with (well almost everything). But I also have my tennis friends and my clay friends. I started meeting new clay friends in 2006 when I went to my first Clay Carnival in Vegas. I now know that my clay friends mean a lot to me even though we may only see each other in Vegas. (Vickie, Lisa, Donna etc) I love doing clay and I love meeting people who love clay. My clay friends have grown right along with the number of retreats and classes I attend. Some I just get to know and then they move away. (Cheryl Medvedeff if you are reading this I have lost your email please write!) My clay friends here in Charlotte (Maggie, Cheryl, Brenda etc) I thank you for being here and putting up with me more often than anyone should have to. And to my clay friends in Asheville we will have a hard time because of the gap left in our lives but we will get thru it together. And perhaps we will learn that we don't always have plenty of time.