I am not sure when I first met Rebecca, but I do know that it was at the First Presbyterian Church in Arkansas City, Kansas. We met in Sunday School and Choir. Our choirs…no matter how young we were…sang at least one response in worship every Sunday. We always sat up in the balcony of that lovely church.

But our most fun times were on Saturdays every week. I either walked over to her house…on 4th Street. Or she walked over to my house on B Street. Our choir rehearsal was on Saturdays so we met there most weeks.

We both loved to hike out in the country…mostly in the woods. We also rode our bicycles a lot, both in town and out in the country. We both went to Vacation Bible School and then down to Wentz Camp. We even snuck out of our cabins in the middle of the night…and out on the lake a couple of times. Great fun always.

I went to college and Rebecca married Ed Gilmore soon after she graduated from high school. I didn’t go to Ark City for that wedding as I was pregnant at the time and not supposed to be traveling.

Many years later…when we both had young sons…one of her boys came over to my folks house out in the country with one of their horses. The kids all got to ride that horse in my folk’s pasture.

When I arrived in Ark City I always made some time to go out to her house to see her. Even as we got older we continued to connect. My last time with her was several weeks before her death. I picked her up and we ate down town and then just rode around by all the places that we remembered. Rebecca (Becky) was a special person and I miss not having her somewhere I can talk with anymore.