GROCERY LIST

When Beverly Rowbotham was murdered, she was wearing an undershirt.

Pathologist Dr. John MacDonald said it in court on Feb. 21. He said her feet were bare, 

and her jean jacket was buttoned at the wrists, and not the front. 

A young and beautiful Bev Rowbotham.  
Probs around my age here.

photo taken from Winnipeg Sun

But the undershirt, to me, is the most painful detail. She must have put it on that day because in October it gets cold. And if Bev Rowbotham could sense a breeze on her back, she could feel the blade on her fingers when she raised a hand to protect her face. 

Thinking about that makes her real to me, despite that I did not know her. It makes what happened to her possible. 

I watched her husband, Mark Stobbe, in the courtroom. He pleaded not guilty, by the way.

Hours later, I was feeling sad and I put on my television. On Golden Girls, Blanche was at a comedy club with Rose and Sophia, and Dorothy performed at amateur night.

Trying comedy was on the do-before-you-die list Dorothy made when she was young. Beverly’s wristwatch washed up on the riverbank. Those things made me think of time. And I am young, so I made a list of my own. 

At the top, I wrote about living in Manhattan and drinking Coke out of a glass bottle. By the bottom I scribbled something about feeling God at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, even though I did that last summer.

Four lines down, I wrote that I want to help free women from violence.