Laurie Mitchell was a great friend—she will be missed!

By SJ Otto

As we all get older, we lose friends. That is what has happened last week with my friend Laurie Mitchell. As with my friend Tim Pouncey, Laurie was 61 years old. Laurie had cancer, so I suppose the loss was more expected than Tim’s.

I don’t think any loss is completely expected. We never know how long a person really has.

I’ve known Laurie and her husband Steve Jackman since before Cam Gentry and I were married, in1984. Laurie and Steve got married just about 2 years later. They always seemed to be a happy couple. They used to love to travel and they had plenty of good stories to tell us about their various adventures. One of their favourite destinations seemed to be the British Ise. As with us, they also visted Mark Davis, our friend in Spain. They visited many countries including some real backward third world countries were poverty was overwhelming. No one can say they were wimpy about their travels. They were willling to check out those les than comfortable countries, in some very dark places.

One of their trips took them to China. They had plenty of interesting tales of that trip. I was especially interested in that trip since I am a Maoist.

Laurie and her husband Steve use to go to most of our parties. In our younger days we had lots of them. Laurie was never a drinker. She avoided alcohol and any other kind of intoxicating substance other than caffeine. She loved coffee drinks.

Her politics were liberal, much like Pouncey’s or my wife Cam. I’ve always been the token Marxist amongst our friends. After all, if I only hung out with other Marxists, I wouldn’t have any friends here in Wichita.

One thing Laurie and I had in common is that both of us got a book published. Her’s was "So... Is He Gay. The Single Woman's Guide to Whether He'd Make a Better Groom or Caterer at Your Wedding.” I don’t know how well it sold, but as with mine, War on Drugs or War on People?, we both took great pride in the fact that we did get our books published. That is no small task. It is something of pride and we both had the opportunity to take part in that process.

Laurie and Steve believed in their Church, Woodland United Methodist Church and their religion. They were Christians. Cam and I are not. We (Cam and I) do not believe in the afterlife. As for Laurie and Steve their religion gave them great comfort. It worked for them and at this point in time that is all that really matters.