Karin Lindgren (1971)

Time goes slow.

Friendships grow.

Then time goes so fast.

Can this friendship last?

From my side, Leslie, our friendship endures.  I remember the above song, which you wrote while training to be a Girl Scout camp counselor during the summer of 1969.  Some fifteen years later, I took up acoustic guitar and taught myself to play your "Friendship" song.  You were not only a songwriter, but a fine poet as well.  I love (still!) your arresting first line of a poem that appeared in our literary magazine, Turret:  "Frosting pink lullaby,,,"  Everything about you, including my memory of you, is sweet.

Oh, we had fun with our Girl Scout troop!  Not long after I arrived in Alexandria, you had a party at your house.  We all sneaked a few beers, then went out to TP some houses.  How we giggled as the rooster tails unfurled and the rolls of TP arced over some unsuspecting sleeper's roof!  Then there was the spring camping trip at Bull Run.  Remember how we sat atop a hill gazing at the stars as we smoked Tiparillos?

You loved to sing, as do I.  I trust that you are now in the alto section of the Celestial Choir.  Please save me a place next you, for I plan to join you in that choir one of these days.  I am also counting on you to help me TP St. Peter's house!  Fly high, lovely angel.

Karin Lindgren (1971)

This link https://www.geni.com/people/Leslie-Whitaker-n%C3%A9e-Hesson/655342 provides complete details about Leslie Hesson Whitaker.  She succumbed to leukemia/lymphoma in 2006.  She was a teacher and got her degree from Longwood in Farmville, Va.