Linda and Allen in the early 70s
If there is one person who is capable of coming back from the dead it is my girlfriend Linda. I am expecting her to show up. Tonight is the wedding of her second son, Brett Sklaw, to Liz Berman in Dayton, Ohio.
Linda died of breast cancer when we were both 42. She fought it to the bitter end because she didn’t want to leave her two little boys. She was horrified that her sons would grow up without a mother so she instructed me to find her husband Allen a wife. I did. It took me a year but I found an angel that Linda would have loved. My sister-in-law Susan had a girlfriend Shelly whose husband also died young. One day when we were both with Allen, we called Shelly and forced him on the phone to speak to her. They were married a year later.
Shelly gave Linda’s sons the best life possible. They went from several dark years of watching their mother fade away to the sunny life of Jappy (Jewish American Prince) boys growing up with the finest on Long Island.
Brett is now a gastroenterologist doing a fellowship in Columbus, Ohio and Philip is a mental heath counselor on Long Island. While Allen is a very devoted and loving father, I credit Shelly with taking away the many negatives and replacing it with more positives.
While I only see the boys once a year because of busy schedules, I feel very close to them. Philip is married to Kelly Burke. Linda’s maiden name was Berk.
The rehearsal dinner took place last night with 100 people in attendance. Brett asked me to give a speech. I was going to thank Ohio for voting for Obama, but on my way to the mic someone whispered that Liz’s parents are Republicans so that blew that.
I talked about Linda, Allen, and Shelly. What could have been a morbid story turned into an inspirational one. I am not a great speaker at a mic, but I think Linda heard me.
That is why I wrote this story in a tech blog. We just don’t know the capabilities of future technologies. I never really believed in the afterlife but, I know the super powers of Linda. She was brilliant and had deeper thoughts than most. When she was in a coma thrashing about so that she would not die, she whispered to me, “I am not going anywhere.”
DigiDame 
Great story today, Lois. We all go through sad times and the positives help us get through that if we let it. Sometimes people just need that boost. Thanks for sharing and enjoyed the great picture of you and Elliot.
Hi Lois,
What a beautiful story. Although the 3 of us were friends when we were younger, and Linda even brought me into her sorority, I lost contact when I moved out of Hilltop in my 20’s. It was a terrible
shock when I called you years ago to find out if you and Bonnie were going to a Jamaica H.S.
reunion, only to find out about Linda. I think of her often…….
Thank you Ellen. So much time has passed yet I feel like we are 10 until
I look on the mirror. Happy birthday Oct 19th
Beautiful!
Thank you
Miss you