In memory of Anne Rigby

death is weird. we tend to only remember life in the manner surrounding death, and that’s kind of bullshit cuz it negates all the time spent in between. my mom was born on january fifth 1970 and died on August third 2022 and got up to so much living in between. my mom was beautiful, charismatic, sarcastic, snarky, intelligent, opinionated, passionate, stubborn and a million other things. she exuded vibrancy and life and everyone around her could feel that. i think about calling her. a lot. she was my best friend and i would call my mom for the most stupid things. to complain about the price of asparagus, to bitch at her about the guy that cut me off in traffic, to ask her the difference between two things I could definitely have googled instead. i want to call her and tell her how proud i am of myself for going back to school and how I got all A’s this terms. I want to call her when i’m frustrated at being kept up by her cat crying at 3AM, even though i know he’s just confused and misses her. i’ve said something along the lines of “oh my mom would know that” what feels like a million times in the past month or two while trying to figure out how to deal with all of this, and she always would; she always knew the answer or a solution, and i miss that so much right now. i have no idea what i’m doing currently or even what to do going forward. 24 is much too young to be parent-less. my mom found beauty in every part of life. the light shining through the leaves on a tree, the first dandelion bloom, the sound of waves hitting an empty cove. she loved sunlight, the lake, her cat, good music, good food, plants and so many other things and that’s how I hope all of you will remember her. She was so loved and will be so missed.

I love you mom, sorry I never said it out loud enough. I’ll miss you until the end of time.

Anne Rigby 1/5/70-8/3/22

Apparently cremations are expensive, so any donated amount will go to that or to me travelling back and forth between Redding or SLO while dealing with this. Anything extra will go to allowing me to take a day or two off work to grieve while still being able to pay my bills.

Much love, Madison