It's pretty hard to only come up with a few memories of Sandy. I met Sandy 17 years ago when I fell in love with her beautiful son, Michael. We became instant friends. Years later, when she became my mother in law, I would joke with her that while so many people complained about having a "mother in law from hell"  I got a mother in law from heaven. Sandy was not just family, she was my friend. We had so many hysterical laughs over the years, I couldn't begin to count them all. A few stand out and I will see if I can put one to paper here. 

We also had a very honest relationship and were both very sensitive to other peoples feelings. Many holidays and visits we would say goodbye and one of us would later call the other and say, "I hope I didn't hurt your feelings when I said ____" or "I hope you weren't offended when I did ______"  Not one single time in all the years was the other one hurt. Mostly we didn't even remember the comment. But it was our honesty that allowed each of us to call and check things out. After a while, we would leave holidays and dinners and visits by saying, "Bye, talk to you in a little while!" 

Okay, so back to a funny memory. I am not sure if it'll sound funny but one time we went up North to see a Jackson Browne concert. We cranked music really loud and talked (really loud!) the whole way... got lost, of course and finally found the place and our seats. So the guy next to me had some really big binoculars and I was determined  to borrow them. I was also determined to get Sandy to ask him. She didn't want to so I finally got up the nerve and did it and when he turned to talk to us about how to use them, the guy smelled like he had swallowed a rat. In our lives, we had never smelled such bad breath. We were literally gagging. I whispered to her, "What an evil twist of fate. We got the binocs to see Jackson but a high price we must pay."  So we laughed beyond hysteria (we were literally crying and peeing in our pants laughing) and continued on with the concert. A while later, the lady in front of Sandy takes out some mints and asks her friend next to her if she wants one and Sandy, (now with a sudden burst of assertive skills), leans forward, asks the lady if she can have a mint and proceeds to grab the entire tin from the lady's hand.  Next, Sandy takes the tin, leans across me and puts it in front of homeboys face and says, "HERE TAKE ONE!" He says, "No thanks" and Sandy keeps insisting, "NO TAKE ONE. TAKE ONE PLEASE." Meanwhile, the lady in front is turned around watching Sandy attempt to give away her mints and I am literally crying from laughing so hard. All I can say is we reminisced about that one for months. I have so many memories like that with Sandy. So many easy times too of just hanging and so many real times of talking about life and love and loss. Sandy was my friend and as she often told me, my family, no matter what. I will remember her everyday that I live and I will treasure even more, the many beautiful pieces of art she has made for me over the years. She is all over my home and she is all over my heart. 

Andrea Wachter