Goodby, Dear Patty

The stillness of the night was shattered by the ringing of the phone--”Alma, I have bad news for you--Patty was killed by a drunk driver earlier tonight,” my niece said.

“Oh God! No. No. Not Patty,” I cried and asked how, when, where and--over and over--why? Why Patty who would never deliberately hurt anyone--so full of life and so giving to all her friends?

Not Patty--my skiing buddy who, last February at a ski area in Northern California, came flying down the mountain at my side shouting, “Come on, Aunt Alma. You can do it.” Patty, laughing and telling jokes all the way home that evening with her friend Brian, sister Jeannie and me beside her as she drove back to Grass Valley.

No, no drunk driver could do that to her. No way. It isn’t fair!

She was just beginning to blossom into young adulthood at 19. Just beginning her first year at Santa Rosa Junior College. Just beginning to experience living away from home. Patty, who had just spent the weekend with her family, gone to Mass and Holy Communion with them and enjoyed her mother’s great cooking--left early in the afternoon after giving them the “I love you” sign as she drove away--back to Sonoma--where she arrived safely and then went out to visit a friend who needed her. On the way back, on a divided highway around 9 p.m., a drunk driver on the wrong side of the freeway took her away from us.

We buried her Nov. 7 in Grass Valley on a bright, sunny morning, but the sun had left our lives.

Goodby, Patty! How we’ll miss you! Our life will never be the same without you--thanks to a drunk driver--who still lives. It isn’t fair!

R.I.P. Patty Neil--age 19.

ALMA M. HENNIGAN

Rancho Palos Verdes