Remembering Debbie & LeeAnn

Debbie Packman and LeeAnn Alford were two Hoosier ladies who deeply touched my heart and soul.
Debbie and her husband Jerry were my next door neighbors when I lived in the Homestead Apartment complex on Indianapolis' West 34th Street.
My good friends and neighbors, Debbie and Jerry did all they could to help me when I was diagnosed with terminal cancer in June of 1981.
They later moved to a little town just South of Indianapolis, and subsequently were divorced.
I don't know what happened with Jerry, but Debbie thereafter still kept in touch with me, and, not long after that, we began to date.
I even was entertaining thoughts of marrying her and maybe also adopting her two grade school age daughters.
Sadly, Debbie contracted lung and heart disease, and, after several major surgeries, died in a Chicago hospital.
LeeAnn then came into my life as the Dietitian of my Health Maintenance Organization (HMO).
She was trying to help me improve my health habits, and she at first thought I was "pranking" her when I first confessed my terrible dietary choices to her.
We also became friends, and she became very interested in learning more about the LDS Church.
Thoughts of marriage were in both of our minds.
However, on Christmas Eve, she was murdered in her home by a drug addict.
Her body, hidden in the front hall closet and still wearing her coat from when she returned home from work, was discovered on Christmas morning by her neighbors, when they became concerned upon seeing her two year old son wandering around without supervision.

Postscript: Vicarious Temple ordinances have been completed on behalf of both of special ladies.