Mystery Peops

[susandennis]

emjaybaxter wrote about talking to two people at his high school reunion that he just couldn't place at all and it reminded me of our family's UnSolved Mystery.

When Daddy died in 1999, he and Mom had lived in Charleston, SC for 10 years. I'd visited two or three times but didn't know any of their friends. Mom and I were home one afternoon before the memorial service when the doorbell rang. People I didn't know had been ringing the bell for a couple of days. I'd answer the door and they would thrust some food treat at me with condolences and the ever-appreciated "I can't stay, I just wanted to drop this by."

This time a woman about my age had a cake but forgot the "I can't stay part". She said instead that she was Joan Skipper's sister and she clearly wanted to come in. So she did. I figured Joan Skipper was a friend of Mom's. This woman - who's name we both missed totally - obviously had met neither of us and only had the sister connection so she prattled on bringing us up to date about Joan and the rest of her family. She was talking to me as much as to Mom and I was madly searching for clues. She mentioned Winston-Salem where I had grown up so I'm whipping through my mental roladex searching for a Joan Skipper and turning up nothing.

This woman stayed for an hour and a half. Mom and I tried a variety of tricks. I excused myself to pee and called Mom's phone from my cellphone. Mom didn't catch on to that one. Then later she excused herself and said she had to call the funeral home before 3. After a few minutes I told the woman that as much as I was enjoying the visit, I was going to have to cut it short to go pick up my brother.

She finally left and Mom and I met back in the living room. I couldn't wait to find out who in the fuck Joan Skpper had been. Well, neither could she. Neither one of us had a clue who Joan Skipper is/was and/or how either of us had ever known her. My sister didn't know and my brother didn't know.

Over the next few months we polled everyone we could think of and no one admitted even a clue. Last year I heard from an old very best friend from high school days. I asked her. Nada.

Poor Joan is now our family joke. She is responsible for every mystery we stumble across. "What ever happened to those brass candlesticks that used to sit on the dining room table?" "I don't know. We might have lost them in a move or given them to Joan Skipper."

We never saw or heard from that sister again either. It remains our UnSolved Mystery. Anyone out there know of a Joan Skipper??