Lila and I worked together for 31 years with the State. For a while we worked at DOR(Dept. of Revenue) and at night at SCDOT. I can remember at times when we were at Park Street as we called it, G-8, later they started calling us the warehouse. Anyway, Lila and I were single parents, which meant other things got taken care of before us. We tried to look good and we liked our heels. Well we wore ours so much that the plastic (cause some of mine were manmade) started peeling off and the nail started showing. Oftentimes we would slide across the office. Well one of our other friends and co-worker whom I think I’ll call her Evelyn or Evelena would laugh and comment with “ya’ll ain’t slid in a while”. We got through that as years past.
At DOR, it was doing tax time that we and some of the birthday gang worked there. This particular time they called themselves re-evaluating our pay, they were suppose to put it in your checking account, well when they finished we could check what was in your account. Lila called hers and wasn’t sure of what she heard so she called the number and told me to listen to see if I had heard the same thing, I listened and I told her, “yep you heard right”. They had deposit about 20cent in her account. We had a big laugh.
I, like Lila tried to work at DOT at night. I think I lasted for 2 months. When 10:00 came, it was time to go, I was so glad. I hurt, so when overtime came open upstairs I told Ms. Margaret, I would be doing overtime. When overtime was done, I decided not to go back. Lila said, “you looked so pitiful, everything ain’t for everyone”. Boy was she right.
The time she brought Ketara a sweater for Christmas. It was a Christmas sweater with birds on it like hers and we said we hope she wasn’t gonna make her wear it. she said yes she was. She brought a blouse and let me tell you ,she and I had different taste in clothes. She said “How you like my blouse? I told her it looked good on her and she said “I can get you one like it.” I told her I valued our friendship too much. That was ok.
I could go on and on but on Thursday,September 1, I was standing in my kitchen and God saw fit to show me something. I responded with “you mean Lila is gonna leave me like Till?” “I’m gonna be going on break by myself? Till was her friend, my parents knew his people. We called him Till, Lila called him Rudy. At lunchtime I called her and told her I needed her to pray for Rochelle, she went on an interview. She told me she had talked to Mr. Paul. I said you gonna give up the part-time job, she said she wasn’t saying all of that. She called me back to let me know she had talked to him and she would be on leave for a while. That night around about 11:40 a neighbor knocked on my door. She said Ms. Cook called, I said Lila? All she said was Ms. Cook called and gave me a cell phone number. It was Lila’s sister. I called and she said Lila was gone.
Lila was my banker, my psychiatric, my break buddy, my lunch partner, my clock, my friend. I will forever remember all the good times we had. My girl was on the one.
Denise Brown
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