Wednesday, July 16, 2014

January 23, 1954 - June 28, 2014


This is the final entry in THE PLOG.  But that doesn't mean it's the last word.  Patricia Jempty, the author who always signed her posts PJ, passed away - peacefully, in her sleep, in hospice - in the early hours of June 28 in Brooklyn, NY.  In the days before, she had been embraced by her friends and her family - her husband Marty, her children Mariel, Mark and Harry.

Her friend Ronni Gordon wrote a lovely tribute to Patricia on her own blog: "She was feisty, funny, smart and compassionate." (You can read it in its entirety here:  http;//runerwrites.blogspot.com/2014/06/on-losing-friend-to-leukemia.html.)  After she fell down at 2 a.m. earlier this year, Patricia assessed the situation thusly: "Lesson learned: no more seltzer in the night."

Patricia had a thing for the color orange long before Netflix decreed it cool; she also liked shoes, and earrings that matched her clothes.  But it is her love for Marty, Mariel, Mark and Harry that was the wellspring of her remarkable spirit and courage.

That love lives on, through her family and her many friends, and through her writing; and because of it, so does she.