experiment
by Don Gore (dgdraws) (from Flickr, not the original Don Gore of this story)

If Ladyjustice was to go to the bakery and order a cake, she would request 31 candles, placed strategically in the icing in the middle and around the perimeter. However, can you imagine ordering a “death anniversary cake”?  No…  Therefore, this blog …and the advocacy work LJ is committed to will have to suffice.  April 17, 1981 seems like yesterday …and a lifetime ago all in the same breath! (The day Ladyjustice’s father was murdered).

How does one portray 31 years of life without a parent?  Well, it isn’t easy.  But, LJ did have her father during the “formative growing up years,” often times while she was staring up at the stainless steel décor and felt the  distinct chill of many hospital  operating rooms…. for yet another surgery.  He was there for all of “that trauma,” part of this writer’s routine.

When Ladyjustice chose the wheat fields of Kansas State University for graduate school, she recalls her father carrying her across the tarmac to return to school after having foot surgery (as the “connector thingamajigs” were not yet used at her world class airport).

And… those milestones that people talk about like marriage, birth of a child; grandchildren have escaped Ladyjustice partly by life circumstance and partly by personal design.  LJ is mostly content as a single person these days…  She tries like hell to keep her upbeat attitude.  And besides… a female is seldom left behind to “carry on the family name.”  (This writer believes that you’ve already heard the story of the “two Donna Gores” in the same nuclear family – one “original” and one sister-in-law.  Hence, the use of the middle initial “R” for Ladyjustice.)

This writer has come such a long way in yet another year since the 30^th anniversary!  There’s been so much to write about, so many new ideas forged, new rewards and opportunities given!

Ladyjustice has but two people to thank (in addition to her) for such achievements…  A million blessings and a heart filled with gratitude is sent to Delilah Jones and Susan Murphy Milano who ALWAYS believe in Ladyjustice!  They have helped to shape another glorious year for this writer!  Her father would like you both… and he would thank you!

To read the special 30^th anniversary tribute to Donald W. Gore, please CLICK HERE

“The Eldest Daughter”