The Pond separating us, I was never granted the grace of being with Susan in person, but we were dear e-mail friends for eleven years. She and I both had a thing for blue poppies and there was one spring several years back when we both were trying to grow them without terribly much success, though I think she did better at it than I did as the English climate suits them more than that of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's. So she and I formed a 2-person Blue Poppy Society. Every year on her birthday I would send her a big color picture of a blue poppy, and I did so this time as well. I'm a writer and among the more serious things I write is a scattering of silly stuff. Susan was in some of those and she always carried a blue poppy in a pot with her no matter where she went or how unusal or untoward the circumstances were. So, for me, when I think of her now, I will always see her with her big smile, the wind in her hair, holding her blue poppy in her pot, and standing in a vast field of blue poppies. I love you. Jo