Sarah Lynn Rouette, April 21st, 1974 to January 7th, 2013

I can’t believe you’re gone, a month ago, you had a close call and by the time I got to your side, you were already bulling people around about the proper texture of your coconut jello and the feng shui of the Christmas decorations in your living room, 6 months ago, you were risking your life on that damn mountain bike of yours flying down steep mountain slopes and 2 years, 9 months and 21 days ago you went into see a doctor for a excisional biopsy on her right breast and woke to a world that had cancer in it. But this blog post isn’t about that disgusting disease, it’s a selfish post about me and her and choices we made in life.

 Sarah was younger, other than her shoe collection, she was a minimalist. She was a stubborn, smart, pig headed, fun and had great dreams, she would focus on a goal and it was hers. She made life look easy. She saved up her money, lived in a shack and took huge elaborate trips to far distant lands with a pack on her back but she always came back to Prescott to roost. Me, I ran away like I was being chased by wild dogs and then spent the next 2 decades coming back for sips from that well. I became a Gypsy, joined a band of roaming sailors who pulled into home port on rare occasions and somehow in the middle of that wildness I had got married and had a kid. Sarah being Sarah and never one to beat around a bush, called me a breeder (with great distain) and that I was making a foolish mistake, alright, I admit, she did call that one sort of right.

Years go by, me traveling the world and wearing out my soles while she stayed in Prescott and gathered a community around her.

She did finally settle down and had two beautiful children that she could call her own and somehow became a super momma involved in all sort of outlandish mommy activities. Most of the mom’s I see are military wives or military members and she out momma’ed most of them. For those of you who do not know Sarah, it’s hard to explain the gaggle of momma friends she had around. These girls were her life and she was theirs in ways that I can’t pretend to understand.

If my sister and I have one thing in common, we can pull people together when we put a mind to it. By this time, I had gathered my own community of nerds and oddballs that was connected by electrons and ether and scattered across vast gulfs.

The point I’m getting to is that even though I’m torn up and weepy right now and even though I’m her brother. It’s been two decades since I’ve made a real impact on Sarah’s life and even then, I don’t’ think I shifted it an inch out of the path she made, over the last few years, she’s formed this commune of friends that have been her strength and armor, she was a part of Prescott, not meaning that she lived in it or that she was a Prescott girl. She was as much of the town as Whiskey Row. I’ve only touched her life briefly, a dab here and a dab there, dumb little things like setting up her blog and attempting to pull her out of the dark ages because even though she had a huge brain, she was still at heart, a total Luddite and thought of technology as a passing fad that the rest of us would get over.

We were always off on our own private holy mission that seemed so important at that moment.  If there is anything in life that I regret, I regret that we did not have a proper brother/sister relationship, I regret rushing off those moments when I could have taken more time to take in her amazing life that she had built like a castle around herself and I regret not being there for you when you needed me. This armor of hers, it’s just not hers, it’s the people she’s drawn to herself and right now, it’s torn asunder and I’m sorry, I’m just a dumb boy and don’t have a clue on how to mend it.

My heart aches, I love you sis and miss you terribly.

Her blog is called Drink Water and Breathe

Master Sergeant Kenneth Earl Maddux, Retired

My first obituary with my wife as the editor..

He was born July 9th, 1922 in Watsonville, CA, died February 16th, 2011 at 88 years old.

Kenneth joined the Marines on September 10th 1942, and following bootcamp, was assigned to 5851 Seacoast Artillery Battery on Eastern Island where he served in the fire Control section for 18 months. Upon returning to the states, he married his fiancée and high school sweetheart, Nita Pavan. In 1945, he was honorably discharged and moved back to San Jose where he worked at J.C. Penneys. In 1950, the Korean War started and he joined the Marine Reserves, 12th Amtrac Battalion. Just four days later, his unit was activated and he went to Camp Pendleton for training. Kenneth was later shipped off to Kobe, Japan then Inchon, Korea.

He returned to the states in 1951, was stationed in Alameda, CA and was promoted to Staff Sergeant. The following year, he attended Recruiter School and served in San Francisco as a recruiter and Public Information Officer until 1955, when he was promoted to Tech Sergeant. Following recruiting duty, he was stationed at Camp Pendleton where he was assigned to the Camp Pendleton Scout newspaper where he eventually became the Editor. Following the assignment at Camp Pendleton, he was stationed in Okinawa in 1958 where he worked for the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service until 1960. From 1960-1961 Kenneth was the Press Chief at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, and from the years 1961-1964 he was Public Relations NCO for the 14th Marine Corps District in Hawaii. During the next two years, 1964-1966, he was the Information Chief at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. Finally, from 1966-1967, Kenneth was the Information Chief at Camp Pendleton and from 1967 to 1968 he was the Manager, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, Press center, Danang where he supervised a restaurant, two cocktail lounges and a 58 bed hotel. When he eventually returned stateside to his family in San Jose he had retired as a Master Sergeant.

His next career at the Keystone Coffee Company would last from 1968 to 1983. After 5 years of retirement he began his third career at Penney’s and retired once again.
Kenneth never met someone who didn’t like him and he was a natural storyteller.

During his time as a Marine, he raised a son, Jan and daughter Deborah. Kenneth is survived by his wife of 65 years, Nita Maddux, son Jan Maddux, daughter Deborah Diggins, grandson Max Maddux, granddaughters Heather Diggins Dustman and Liesa Maddux Manson and great grandchildren David and Maria Manson. He also leaves behind his brothers Dick and Bill Maddux.

A viewing will be held on Friday, February 25th from 5pm to 9pm at Oak Hill Funeral Home & Memorial Park, 300 Curtner Avenue, San Jose.

The funeral service will be held on Saturday, February 26th at 2pm in the Rose Chapel, also at Oak Hill.

R.I.P. Josh Wright

If anyone is wondering why I've been in a mad frenzy of picture posting, well anyone who knows me on Facebook. Part of it is because of my friend Josh Wright, who passed a couple of days ago at the age of 31 due to complications of his condition. If you didn't know Josh, he had a blog called Devil Dogs War and was a great supporter of Marines. He wasn't a Marine but it was his greatest dream to be one, he lived for the Marines but it wasn't meant to be, he had contracted Hepatitis C when he was a child and his health was always a bit shaky but he lived for supporting us and thousands of Marines out there received his care packages. I had promised to share my pictures with him months and months ago and hadn't got around to it yet and.... now it's just a bit too late, so I'm putting many of those pictures I was going to give him over there. Rest in Peace Josh, you will be missed.

Dropping like Flies, Jeff Goldblum too?

Farrah Fawcett was expected any day, Michael was a quite a shock but Jeff Goldblum? Unconfirmed reports are saying the he died falling from a cliff in New Zealand shooting a movie. Rumor? Yes it was a hoax (or so I hope, there are pictures of him in New York a couple of days ago with Rachel McAdams). Maybe but it is sobering hearing of the other two, June 25th is turning out to be a strange day. I was behind someone at McDonalds in the drive through and heard them tell the girl in the window that Michael Jackson was dead and the girl said “no way!” and a couple of minutes ago someone in the barracks screamed “Michael Jackson is dead!!!” at the top of his lungs. My grandmother in law was in tears over Farrah and when I told my wife that Michael Jackson was dead, she didn‘t believe me and looked it up on the internet. I’m sure there is an entire movement of fans who are planning candle lit vigils all across the world.

Both were younger then my father and the in-laws, Farrah has my mom by a couple of years but it's close enough not to count. I’m glad that Jeff’s was a hoax because it would have probably bothered me more then the other two, Jeff was a cool cat at the top of his game and the world will be a sadder place without him, Michael and Farrah have had their days in the sun, while it's sad when people go but Farrah wasn’t in a good way which she shared with the entire world and Michael was living like a billionaire off a millionaires salary and face it, was nuttier then a fruit cake dropped in a bucket of peanuts and that was bound to catch up with him.

These stories have dropped NK out of the front page at CNN.com and that is the country threatening us with a “nuclear fire shower” right now if anything happens to them, it doesn’t seem to matter what or who causes it. It will be our fault and we would pay. These jokers keep crying wolf and eventually we got tired of hearing it but we really shouldn’t. The world is a tinder ground, Iran is in chaos, bombs going off in Iraq, it’s difficult to keep your mind on the ball when you don’t know what the ball is. I just know, we could live a lot easier if we didn't have a wack job who yells out craziness off his porch with his old dying fingers on the big red button (that doesn’t say “Easy”)

Alas, what are we to do?