I know some people may have thought of Peggy as loud and maybe didn't take the time to get to know her. For those I would say that it is a shame you didn't know her. She was the most loyal and best of friends, and had a way of making each person that she loved feel as if they were the most important thing to her. Her parents and sister are amazing and I consider them my own family, and I am fortunate to also count some of her extended family in my circle of friends. They saw me through some very hard times and without them I am unsure what would have happened to me. She also had an amazing and huge group of friends, many of whom I consider friends today. She knew something about everything, lived big and was an incredible cook. She will always be missed and always be loved by many.
Peggy lived large. She drank like a sailor and never stopped calling people "dude". Ultimately, she died of complications from rheumatoid arthritis. In order to keep doing the things she loved: skiing, mountain biking, staying up way too late, she had to take medication that wiped out her immune system and over time and painful surgeries, her body couldn't hold up anymore. Fittingly, her last night was spent in total costume glory for Halloween (her favorite holiday) surrounded by great friends.
I have so many favorite memories of Peg including all of the times she and Cathy and I would load into her cherry red '66 Mustang and head to the lake for a day of floating around, drinking, and listening to The Eagles. We also spent our 40th together in high style (Cathy Guion was there, too). But my favorite story occurred when we were in our 30's...
I often had to travel to Denver for work (Peg lived there), so I would stay with her and her husband Steve. On one trip which lasted a week, she immediately began trying to recruit me into stealing her neighbor's chair from their front porch. Why? Well, she lived in an adorable house on a cute street, but her neighbor's house looked like Sanford and Son. Especially because of the old maple glider/rocker perched on the newspaper stacked front porch. The glider was circa 1970-something with its threadbare burnt orange cushion lying in the yard. Every night we would stay up later and drink even more, and every night I would refuse to be enrolled in her criminal act...until the last night. In my drunken logic, I agreed to help her "move" the chair to the corner of the block several houses away. My thought was that the chair owner would realize their transgression, retrieve the chair and place it elsewhere. So we hauled the chair to the corner in my rental Explorer and left it standing in all of its glory near the stop sign and in front of another house. Well, neighbors must have thought this was a designated donation pick up spot because over the next couple of days there also appeared, near the chair, several bags of old clothing, an old washer, and several other items. I am sure the folks in the corner house were wondering "WTF???" but we laughed ourselves to tears every time we thought about it.
Shelley Carney (Russell)
I know some people may have thought of Peggy as loud and maybe didn't take the time to get to know her. For those I would say that it is a shame you didn't know her. She was the most loyal and best of friends, and had a way of making each person that she loved feel as if they were the most important thing to her. Her parents and sister are amazing and I consider them my own family, and I am fortunate to also count some of her extended family in my circle of friends. They saw me through some very hard times and without them I am unsure what would have happened to me. She also had an amazing and huge group of friends, many of whom I consider friends today. She knew something about everything, lived big and was an incredible cook. She will always be missed and always be loved by many.
Peggy lived large. She drank like a sailor and never stopped calling people "dude". Ultimately, she died of complications from rheumatoid arthritis. In order to keep doing the things she loved: skiing, mountain biking, staying up way too late, she had to take medication that wiped out her immune system and over time and painful surgeries, her body couldn't hold up anymore. Fittingly, her last night was spent in total costume glory for Halloween (her favorite holiday) surrounded by great friends.
I have so many favorite memories of Peg including all of the times she and Cathy and I would load into her cherry red '66 Mustang and head to the lake for a day of floating around, drinking, and listening to The Eagles. We also spent our 40th together in high style (Cathy Guion was there, too). But my favorite story occurred when we were in our 30's...
I often had to travel to Denver for work (Peg lived there), so I would stay with her and her husband Steve. On one trip which lasted a week, she immediately began trying to recruit me into stealing her neighbor's chair from their front porch. Why? Well, she lived in an adorable house on a cute street, but her neighbor's house looked like Sanford and Son. Especially because of the old maple glider/rocker perched on the newspaper stacked front porch. The glider was circa 1970-something with its threadbare burnt orange cushion lying in the yard. Every night we would stay up later and drink even more, and every night I would refuse to be enrolled in her criminal act...until the last night. In my drunken logic, I agreed to help her "move" the chair to the corner of the block several houses away. My thought was that the chair owner would realize their transgression, retrieve the chair and place it elsewhere. So we hauled the chair to the corner in my rental Explorer and left it standing in all of its glory near the stop sign and in front of another house. Well, neighbors must have thought this was a designated donation pick up spot because over the next couple of days there also appeared, near the chair, several bags of old clothing, an old washer, and several other items. I am sure the folks in the corner house were wondering "WTF???" but we laughed ourselves to tears every time we thought about it.
You'll always be loved and always be missed, Peg.
Shelley (Carney) Russell