Our little Community has lost a very special person. I am sad to report that Mary Lou Kernop has passed away a little after 6pm on Friday 22.
      Mary Lou was a nurse in her younger days and taught nursing later in her career; some of her old students would keep in touch throughout her life. She was an eyewitness to the attack on Pearl Harbor and told me of that day.
      I’d drive her to town so she could do her shopping and doctors visits. We would do jigsaw puzzles at her home while her little dog would yap at cars driving by. Because of her bad eyesight she would use this large magnifying lens, which made her eyes look really big.
      Mary Lou would never forget to bring a cake to bingo.
      Mary Lou just loved her nieces and would talk about them all the time. In 2003 one niece put on a surprise eightieth birthday party for Mary Lou, and over fifty folks showed up. In that same year she moved away from our little community to live with her niece.
      Mary Lou has been a real asset and was involved with many activities at our community center: crafting, quilting and sewing, vice president of the Copperettes, and she had run Bingo for a number of years and attended many a board meeting where she was very outspoken. She was well liked and will be missed.

      This you can believe it or not and I sure don’t know what to make of it: on that Friday I was on the phone to my friend Mike Long and was walking outside to watch the sunset when the phone circuit to my house died a little after 6pm and I haven’t had phone service for a few days now. I would like to think that it was Mary Lou phoning home.