She owned the house next door to us and our families have been spending summers together since the early 1900s. She was the exact same age as my grandmother (but she always reminded her that she was 6 months younger) and they spent a lot of their summers together starting when they were babies. It is somewhat fitting that we lost both of them this year - and Isabella apparently didn't want to outdo my grandmother, and she died close to 6 months after her... So technically, they lived the same amount of time :) Her grandmother and her mother lived to be over 100; she didn't make it that long but she certainly had quite the life. It's funny how when you read someone's obituary who you knew and loved you suddenly learn so much about their life! I always knew she was an important judge in San Francisco, but to me she was always just Isabella!
She was enamored with our girls this summer. Whenever we came over she was excited to see her "little friends" from next door. She was also excited to get to know Zoë because we got her middle name (Winter) from Isabella's family. She was thrilled we had done that.
I love this picture - Zoë held on tightly to Isabella's finger for so long that I ended up walking back home and being assured they would bring her back to me... They did when she woke up and started screaming :)
When we were at Lake George last week, I snapped this picture of Isabella's house and boathouse so that I could send it to her. I made a photo book of pictures of the lake all iced over - and when I emailed some family to tell them that it would be arriving soon they called back to say she had died. I wished I had sent it earlier but I learned that the morning she died someone had shown her the picture that I had posted on Facebook.That night, I suddenly got the idea to walk over to her boathouse and have a gin & tonic with Tom. We headed out but it was pitch black and pouring rain and we didn't feel safe walking on the ice. Soooo we toasted her from a distance, but I am so disappointed we couldn't do it because I love the idea that the day she died, even though it was the middle of the winter, we could have been there on her dock with a drink toasting her. I have to hope the sentiment will be what counts the most!
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