I was a customer at the dry cleaners for quite a number of years, from the time Regina worked the shop at the corner of 21st and Elliston and later on White Bridge Road. She had learned to always expect me on Tuesdays, and would ask where I had been if I didn't show up. For that reason, I tried to never miss a Tuesday going to the cleaners to drop something off and pick something up. She and I would always cut up about something, usually about the ridiculous, exotic colors I would make up to describe the clothes I was leaving with her. "I don't have a key on the computer for that color," she might say. "When are they going to update that machine?", I might reply. Regina understood my daffy sense of humor, and played along with it. For that reason, I looked forward to my Tuesday stops at the dry cleaners, and went out of my way to go to the White Bridge Road shop after the previous shop's property was sold and redeveloped. I stood in stunned disbelief when I went to the cleaners expecting to carry on some more foolishness with her, and instead her obituary was on the door. It just won't be the same any more. Rest in peace, Regina, and my sincere sympathy and condolences are offered to her family and friends. With the end of her life, a part of ours is gone, too.
David Hayes Prophater