". . . the lady that's known as Lou . . . "

Robert Service wasn't writing about my friend Lou, Weezie, when he wrote his poem about Dangerous Dan McGrew. But Lou is a woman who could definitely inspire his sentiments. A breast, bone and brain cancer survivor, she is a woman who has lived through more than a couple of gunshots.
Her friends and coworkers treated her to lunch recently at the ball park restaurant in Phoenix.
Old friends dropped by to wish her well as she retires from her job with State of Arizona.
Lou is a complex lady with a lot of depth and we would have to talk about her one layer at a time if you were to get to know her at all. But I can tell you she is much more beautiful than these pictures reveal. Her face is swollen from the radiation she underwent recently to kill a tumor in her brain. The steroids she is taking add to the swelling, but those will end soon. Meanwhile, perhaps you can see something of her liveliness and vivacity.

My old friend Adolfo and his wife Irene came to lunch; Adolfo is Lou's boss and a great support to her.

I don't always agree with Lou's views, but I respect the way she adheres to her core values. I admire the love and loyalty she gives to her family through even the mean times. And while I am positive that Lou has never "pinched a poke," she is a lady who could take over the Malamute without a qualm or a quiver. It's too bad my pictures don't capture Lou at her best, but they help me to recall her zest, her appetite for life. I am away from Arizona these days, but I think of Lou often.