Dear Joe,
I’m sure you remember old Ed Bradbury and
Maggie, you haven’t been gone that long.
Years ago we hunted ducks on the slough
over on the back of Ed’s farm, where you go
to floundering around in the mud and nearly
got in over your hip boots. Well, Ed was in the
pool hall last Saturday most of the afternoon
and returned to find Maggie lying dead on the
living room couch. If you don’t remember Ed,
I’m sure you remember Maggie. In her
younger days there wasn’t a man in these
parts who didn’t envy old Ed. Everyone use to
wonder how in the dickens he wound up with
her. Anyway she’s gone! Doc Harris told
Preacher Bishop this morning that he figured it
was her heart, but no one will ever know. Ed is
taking it pretty hard, but that’s to be expected,
as close as they were.
I talked to him just last week in town when
he was in getting her some medicine and he
said at the time she just didn’t feel like getting
out of the pick-up. That’s not at all like
Maggie, you know how outgoing she was. I
spoke to her that evening, but she didn’t pay
much attention, she was just sitting there
looking out the window as if she didn’t even
know who I was. I didn’t realize how old she
was getting, but if you think about it, Ed
brought her to this country nigh onto 15 years
ago. I remember she didn’t like it at first, and
Ed though about taking her back to the city,
but Maggie was quick to make friends and in
no time at all it was like she’d been here all
her life.
The two of them were inseparable, every
Saturday when Ed came in town to buy feed,
she’d ride along, sitting right over next to him
as if she were afraid he was going to get away
from her. They’d drop by the filling station on
the way home and he’d buy her a candy bar
while he had a bottle of pop. Of course she
was a beauty back then, back before she put
on so much weight. I’m sure that getting so
heavy was hard on her health, but Maggie just
loved to eat, and Ed bought her nothing but
the best!
They had her funeral on Sunday afternoon,
but not too many of Ed’s friends were there
and I guess Ed’s pretty upset about that too.
But shucks it was all so fast most of us were
gone or didn’t know about it until Monday or
Tuesday. I’d have been there if I hadn’t been
hunting ducks. I thought the world of her. In
fact, I never told anyone this, but she came
over to my place once when Ed made that trip
to the city and spent most of the day. We went
for a swim down at the creek. But she was a
smart one…she was back home an hour
before Ed was. She was partial to me and one
of Ed’s neighbors, old Horace Glitch. She’d
get a little peeved cause she couldn’t go in the
pool hall with Ed, and she’d sneak off down to
the river where Horace was bank-fishing and
drinking beer, and not come in ‘til after dark.
Ed never did know where she’d been, and still
don’t I reckon. That Maggie loved beer and
pretzels even more than candy bars.
Some of his friends think it’s ridiculous for
Ed to be carrying on this way, but they don’t
know how much he thought of Maggie. And
Ed doesn’t have anyone else, his wife left him
8 or 10 years ago. She told him to choose
between them and he chose Maggie. Who
could blame him, that wife of his never shut
up, and she spent money like it grew on trees.
And she constantly found fault with old Ed.
Maggie never did…anything Ed did was all
right with her. Well to all those who say it’s
silly for a man that age to grieve so over a
dog, I say they don’t know what it’s like to lose
a good Labrador! That Maggie was a
sweetheart.
Well, I’d best sign off Joe. I want to take my 'ol
dog Magnum out in the morning and see if we
can work some ducks before Christmas gets
here. The mallards and the green-wings are in
pretty good, and the wood ducks are long
gone. Can’t wait to see you and the family at
Christmas.
Sam
The Lightnin’ Ridge Magazine’s Christmas
issue is almost 100 pages of great reading.
You can get one mailed to you by calling
Gloria at 417 777 5227
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