Life can be fragile...

After waiting for a few email replies, yesterday Janet Howey, who owns a bookstore in Todos Santos managed to hook me up with the phone number of the new place where Trisha is living, and I was actually able to place a call which got through...and that was the good news. Trisha told me some very sad news today, however. The woman pictured in the center of the photo taken at El Refugio on March 30, whose name is Joy, was apparently murdered in her camper near Playa Los Cerritos (beach,) just a few miles from the refuge a couple of days ago. Joy, an American who had hitchiked down to the area last December, was a volunteer at the refuge helping clean dog cages and other essential chores, and was a painter who was doing a wall painting for Mariposa at the time she was killed. Trisha and I both knew her quite well, and it stressed to us both how fragile life can be, and how important it is to tell those you care about, how you feel, right now.

I was very relieved to hear Trisha's voice again, and to now have a way to reach her whenever I need to. Hopefully, better news will be coming from down there in baja in the days ahead...