Loretta Gail Caldwell

David,

We are so sorry to hear of the passing of Gail. She was one of the sweetest people that I have known. I knew her all the way through school and was in the band with her. My wife Cindy met her at Mission Hospital when our son was in the Neonatal ICU after he was born. Cindy enjoyed talking with her and meeting her. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and the family. Keep your eye on the Good Lord Above and he will see you through this time on earth. Keep your faith in God and you can look forward to seeing her again as we know that she is with him.

God Bless you,

Leonard,Cindy,& Brandon Nix

Oh my God, I had no idea that my best buddy was even ill!! Oh Gail I am so sorry you were at Elisabeth House and I did not know.

Gail and I met in kindergarten, my class was to do a joint project with Gail’s class and being a very shy child no one wanted me on their team which was just 2 per team. And out of the blue came this booming voice “I’ll take her!!” and it was Gail pointing at me. She immediately took “aliken” to me since we both had gail as a middle name. We were inseparable throughout school. I had a birth defect in my left leg and gail became my protector so that no one would injure me at recess. We used to swap shoes everyday because she hated the shoes she had and loved mine – so I would swap out with her. She had a crush on Roberto as did I, after all it was 4th grade by then. I moved away and we stayed in contact daily via phone. When she ran away I was the one she called to tell where she was; we had parties all the time at her house, she wasn’t allowed to visit me because we lived in a mobile home and the stigma of that was unbearable for her parents, but Gail didn’t care. We did our thing as adults, got married and divorced, reconnected when I got married a second time and she played the piano at my second wedding to daniel rogers. She said she swore off the piano but she would play for me, she said she would have to have a special parking place because her car had lost reverse and she could not back up so put her somewhere she could drive straight out, I remember her driving around in circles in the parking lot trying to get just the right angle. Then Cecilia was born and had some issues with her foot and Gail knew that I had had my leg amputated by that point in time. She called wanting to know how to deal with someone who had an amputation, she did not want to see me as she could not handle seeing me with only one leg; however, she got over that and Cecilia and I became very close for those few years when Gail was helping her to cope with the loss of her foot. We hung out, did some classic car events together, talked about old friends from grammar school like Roberto, Liz, Dana, Karen, Tamra, Kim, Jamie, and Wendell and others. When her parents died we reconnected again and it was if time had never passed. I found out this morning that my dear friend had passed a week ago today. I had a vivid dream of her on Thanksgiving morning before getting up to do the turkey thing, I mentioned it to my husband and said I bet she needs me, now I know it was just Gail’s way of saying goodbye to her best bud. What a deep sadness I feel at not having been able to visit her when she was in need. To Cecilia, Christopher, and David, and Mike I know you guys and my heart goes out to you. She was and always will be my dearest and best friend in the world.