I always knew my father Donald had brothers and a sister. Over the years, I wondered about my aunt and would look her name up as far back as the phonebook days before the internet. I even called a number in Colorado  that I found but hung up because I was scared of how I would be received. One day I decided to look her name up on facebook and found she had a daughter so I got my nerve up and sent Helen a message.  What an awesome decision, Helen put us in touch and I was able to meet my Aunt Andrea at last. 
When we met for the first time she embraced me and made me feel so much love. She was as beautiful as I thought she would be but I could not have imagined how genuinely sweet and loving she would be. 
I am saddened at the loss of all the years we missed out on but I’m so grateful for having shared time together at my home, in Vegas and last year in Venice (thanks Helen).  
I will cherish her memory for the rest of my life. 
With love Donna

This is a letter that Andrea wrote to her father in 1976. Her dad had a good sense of humor! (I’m not if she ever got those cigarettes)

Message from Andrea’s older brother Clarence:
When we were kids, I went outside to play & found Andrea & another little girl crying in the back yard. I went over to see what was wrong & they were crying over a dead caterpillar. Andrea was just a sensitive person whose quality we should admire. I realized that she was really special and that changed me to be more sensitive about life and people. 

Her heart was so sweet and so loving, it made me appreciate her more and as we grew up, she never changed. I felt special that I had a sister like her and because she always encouraged me whenever I was feeling down, she became like a guidepost or an example for me. As long as I had Andrea there, I was gona be okay. She filled a place in my heart that no one else will ever be able to replace. She was a beautiful person & I felt lucky to have her as my sister. I realized when we were kids that she was someone I could look up to even though I was the older brother. She was always that anchor for me. Mom always told me look after her, she not a girl, she’s your sister and that put her on a different level for me. I’m going to miss her always!
~ Love Clarence

When Great Trees Fall
Maya Angelou

When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants lumber after safety.

When great trees fall in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly, see with a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines, gnaws on kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken.

Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us.
Our souls, dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance, fall away.
We are not so much maddened as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of dark, cold caves.

And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly.
Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be better.
For they existed.

You are loved, my Andrea!

You are missed in measures that only our Creator (in JESUS' Name) can resound ...

JESUS!
JESUS!
JESUS!!!

I pray that somehow/some way that my "heart" can be healed to ease the pangs of loss that are overcoming me, right now ...
I know that this sorrow that I am experiencing is so very temporary.

_______

I know that you are CELEBRATING within the MAJESTY of LOVE--LOVE "ETERNAL" at this very moment, and that you are asking the Holy Spirit to lovingly whisper in (Yvonne's) heart ...

MATTHEW 28:19-20 [New International Version (NIV)]

19   Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the NAME of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

20   and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age."
_______

Thank you, our Beautiful Andrea ... Thank (You), Sweet JESUS

“… And surely (You) are with (us) always to the very end of the age."

HOW PRICELESS ARE YOU, MY ANDREA!  MY SISTER!  HOW VERY PRICELESS!!!

Andrea, Darlene Hicks, and I (Yvonne Fitzhugh) all shared 2 "life-altering" years graced upon us at St Dorothy Elementary School in Chicago, IL!

Those 2 years (between 1961 & 1963) marked and "miraculously" formed the "cement" that began to allow each of us to emotionally bond as "Sisters", ALL the beautiful days of our lives ...

Yes!  We were graced with an earthly LIFETIME, together!!!

______

"Sisters" who filled the gap that all of us suffered as being positioned as either the "Only" Girl (Andrea); the "Only" Child (Darlene); or the "Middle" Child (Yvonne).

"Sisters" who filled the gap of not being able to experience that "seamless" bonding that so naturally forms in "many" biological families; however, we were BLESSED to "still" have been able to experience ALL those JOYS (together) … with each other.

ALL of us experienced those JOYS that last forever—and neither Time nor your Transition has (or can) separate us--in JESUS' Name.

Our Beautiful Sister (Darlene) already transitioned 21 years ago …
 
And now I miss you, our Beautiful Andrea, BEYOND articulation.

______

But I (know) that we “3” Sisters/Amigos are bonded FOREVER … I will see you “both” once again, my Andrea/my Beautiful Sister … I will (in JESUS’ Name)!

She was an ABSOLUTE AMAZING WOMAN!!!
She will be truly missed!!!!
I thank GOD for the time we spent together and laughing together. 
She literally up the room and was a precious ANGEL!!!

OBITUARY

Andrea Ruffin

Chapel Hill Gardens South Funeral Home & Cemetery

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