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14 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | FEBRUARY 2016 The Writer's Club held a contest with the theme, "What was your most memorable New Year's Eve?" Out of all of the wonderful submissions, Judges Roland Harrah, Sharon Bond and Michael Rothberg, chose the following contestants as this year's winners: Betty Vitatoe won 1st Place, Diane Bibo and Pat Cummings tied for 2nd Place and Jean Lawrence won 3rd place. On behalf of the Writer's Club, we'd like to share the winning story. By Betty Vitatoe-Brooks Muhammad A memorable event is always looked upon as a wonderful occasion; a moment that may take one's breath away or that is remembered with, joy, enthusiasm, excitement, and all other characteristics that feed the spirit with pleasure. Seldom or never is it associated with sadness or displeasure. However, a memorable experience may be one that is unusual and sets the stage for thoughts or emotions that stir the very core of the mind, heart and soul. Such was a New Year's incident that I experienced many years ago. When I was a young child, my mother seldom received many guests into our home. She had friends and family members but they were not frequent visitors. Yet, there was one lady who would come just about every week and sit in the kitchen. She would stay for hours; sit in the same chair at the kitchen table, talk with my mother throughout the day, and smile at me and my siblings. She had a peculiarly warm and tender, closed-mouth smile. She seemed to be always smiling at me when I would enter the kitchen. I personally internalized that smile and interpreted it as favor she extended to me more than to my other seven siblings. We referred to her as Miss Netta. The last time I saw Miss Netta was on New Year's Eve, 1956. I was 8 years old. We were excited about the egg nog we would drink later that night, the sparkles we would get to light, and the opportunity to stay up late. Miss Netta was there and must have left sometime before dark to walk home. She lived about five blocks away from us and always walked to our house and back to hers. That evening we wished her a Happy New Year and continued to anticipate the night's activities. At 12:00 a.m., we knelt to pray, then shouted Happy New Year to each other, rushed to phone my oldest sister to extend New Year's greetings to her, and filled our cups with egg nog. Some of us were able to add a teaspoon of rum to our delicious once a year beverage. Then it was outside to light the sparkles and watch the fire flicker and die. We laughed and enjoyed each others' company more than at any other time of year. We finally retired to our beds, happy for the time we had just spent together, and looked forward to a fantastic New Year. When I woke up the next morning, my mother was in the kitchen preparing breakfast, as usual. After greeting her, she informed me that Miss Netta had died. DIED?? I was astonished; literally, almost in shock. How could we have had such a nice celebration a few hours ago and now you tell me that Miss Netta was dead. She was just here. We wished her a Happy New Year. This was my first experience with death of a loved one. I had not known anyone who had died before this. It was a very difficult moment for me. I was NEVER going to see that loving smile again; never. The moment was accompanied by confusion, insecurity and fear; knowing that at any moment one can simply die and that there was nothing that we could do about it. No one explained any of this to me. Why would something like this happen. What kind of God would allow this? A MEMORABLE NEW YEAR L-R: Pat Cummings, 2nd place tie; Betty Vitatoe-Brooks Muhammad, 1st place; Diane Bibeau, 2nd place tie; Jean Lawrence, 3rd place; Joseph Laurin, Writer's Club captain. Irve Sturner, Photographer A Memorable New Year's Eve: Writer's Club Contest Winner continued on next page

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