If I get it right, it is halfway through Susie’s visitation as I begin this. In a way I am sorry I’m not there but I am not sure I am “up” to some of the other stuff (not related to Susie) that our Tiger Team has been dealing with down there in Fla. I am [sometimes] envious of the cFam for having so many siblings to help out when a family emergency (or two) suddenly crops up. I often felt lonely not having my brother around when our parents died. But knowing some of the stuff I have learned since The Commander died, it may have been best that I didn’t have anyone to potentially squabble with because I am not sure that my brother and I *wouldn’t* have squabbled. Okay, KW, don’t get dragged down into the finFam crapola. I do know that I was lucky to have the GG steadfastly beside me throughout all of it.

The first time I ever went to Florida was when the cFam parents permanently moved down there to one of their condos. We drove down there when they did and even met up with them a couple of times on the I75 Snowbird Geezerway but not at church in Valdosta, GA. We scooted ahead of them at that point. We had the baby Lizard Breath (17 months) and *Susie* with us in our loverly VW Jetta. We were all so young then. On the way down, we drove across the Sunshine Skyway bridge when it was still scary as hell.

Susie was a natural caregiver of, well, anyone who needed help although she was also no fool. She knew when someone was trying to take advantage of her and could be stern when needed (but would still prob’ly help). On that trip, Liz was rapidly increasing her vocabulary and it was Susie was who translated things like “erderator” as *alligator*. I think they were having conversations that I didn’t know were happening 😉. So below is a kind of crazy pic of Susie holding Liz in Garth and Sally’s condo. They are both making the same funny, crooked kind of happy face.

We went down to Florida again when Liz was 7 and Mouse was almost 5. Susie was living down there by then and I am not sure whether or not she knew Cap’n Ed by then but I *think* she may have known some of his friends. In the pic below, we are at a beach somewhere. I can’t remember exactly where but it was a zero tolerance beach.

When Susie wasn’t taking my beach urchins out into the water, we were sitting on the beach watching them and guffawing about the various weird male humans walking past us. Suze, there’s a guy for you. Nooooooooo. At some point, we realized that we had totally lost track of where the GG was. We had seen him buying a huge cup of pop at the concession stand and then he disappeared.

Eventually, he re-appeared right in front of us and it turned out that he had purchased a huge cup of Sprite, then headed over to the Exxon Tanker Valdez (our 1989 Chrysler minivan) to spike the Sprite with some bourbon that we had in the back of the van. So much for a zero tolerance beach. The Twinz of Terror know how to get around rules.

Again, Godspeed to Susie. We had some good times over the years!

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