My Sister

We had just started home from a barbecue in North Bend when Deb's cell phone rang.  It was my Mother-in-law, though it was almost midnight, I was not surprised, my wife's family often keeps late hours.  I heard on the blue tooth speaker that I was to call my Dad's wife.  I thought uh oh, my something happened to my dad.  But that was not the case, it was that my sister had been killed in a car accident--Holy Cow!
I called my dad, of course thinking about what he had been going through.  My sis, also named Debra, but for decades, using the name Terri, was a constant worry for him.  For the last few decades, we had rarely seen her. She had been living in Nashville, a place that she seemed taken to.
When we were little, we were twin terrors,  there was Debbie and Me and we were inseparable.  She was 2 years younger, we both loved playing with the kids on Leonard Street and in the basement of Grandmother Barers house, where there was a bar, a big radio, and a piano.  I remember my famous "Debbie did it" meaning any trouble I was about to get into was "her" fault.  It became such a catch phrase my family would often repeat it.   As we became teenagers, we seemed to share a love for Rock music,radio, and the hippie culture along with everything else that embodied the 1960s, yet we grew further apart often at odds with each other. 
When Debbie got out of high school in 2 years, rather than 3 years.  She headed to the University  Of Washington.  She would never live in Walla Walla again.  She did visit once in a while. She left school and worked for the phone company, a job that gave her good benefits.  This allowed her to do some travel.  She would later get her real estate license. She had begun to use the name Teri, which she may have picked up when working at the U-Dub radio station.
A friend who knew her in Nashville told my dad that she had made a good life for herself in Nashville.  A look at her Facebook page shows an interest in Nascar, something that I would never in a million years think she would have an interest in.  She also worked to save the Nashville Fairgrounds.  She was constantly at Nashville City Council meetings.  She had numerous Facebook friends, not one associated with Walla Walla, nor the family.
We are happy that she was able to find a place to be happy.  A Graveside service will be held Tuesday, July 30th, 10am at the Mountain View Cemetery in Walla Walla.