The Little Blue Box

Sunday was a fun day for the "Ooka girls". This is how me and my sibs call ourselves as a group. All our lives we've been the Ooka girls-daughters to Carl and Marie Ooka. I come from a family of 7 girls. Yes...7. One of my sisters, Debbie, died almost 5 years ago from pancreatic cancer. We know the loss of loved ones and for us they come in 5's as Trish pointed out on Sunday. Dad died 15 years ago, Mom 10 years ago and Deb 5 years ago.

On to more fun things. So...my oldest sis, Val, and I(the youngest) decided to do something nice for our sisters. We each pitched in $100 for each sister and we got each sister a gift certificate for $200 at Tiffany & Co. We thought how fun it would be to get all of us together for a "day of shopping" which really meant lunch (and then surprise them with gift certs) then to Tiffany and the Nordstrom sale.

Val and I have been planning this for a couple months. It was hard getting Karen to commit to being there that day but I used the all too familiar Catholic guilt to get her there. I told her "you never know what might happen to one of us". As planned, she thought something was wrong with Val. I told Karen about life's priority and that her business, The Madison Park Bakery, would always be there and how precious life is. This made Karen really worry that something was wrong with Val. I tried reassuring Karen that Val was ok but knowing Karen, she'd continue to worry anyway.

So here are some photos of us (Tiffany & Co. would not let us take photographs in the store) outside Tiffany and at Gordon Biersch where we presented them with the gift cards. Dad would have absolutely loved to see all of us together and even more thrilled to see us in Tiffany picking something out that would remind each other of the love we all share.

I love all of you! This photo from the left is me(Naomi), Trish, Kathy, Val, Karen and Cheryl.

If there is one thing Mom and Dad taught us it was to always be there for each other, love each other and put aside your differences. We've been pretty darn successful at that. Debbie - we love you and miss you. We wish you were there with us! We know you were there in spirit but its not the same without you.