I would like to be the voice for my slain friend for just a moment. I hope there are aspects of her life which will inspire others, as she inspired me, to try to be a better person.
Clo was an only child born to older parents, and was a very wanted and beloved child and young woman by her parents and many friends. I was fortunate enough to work with her when we were in our early 30's, and we became close friends very quickly. I " got" her, and a lot of the older nurses we worked with at that time didn't- at all. We were a virtual white tornado of business - two young and productive, white clad nurses, taking care of very ill-often terminally ill patients- together during those years. We were the youngest nurses on our floor, so we were often practical jokers among the staff- but I plead the Fifth Amendment on all that.
It was good, clean fun in a high- stress environment. I don't know what my shifts would have been like if she hadn't been there at all. Dreary and extremely sad, I think.
She was extremely frank, not mincing words about what she thought. I think that sometimes, her frankness, tinged with humor, helped people see the truth. Once she told a cardiac patient that if he was going to get his new prescription for heart medication filled, he needed to throw away his cigarettes first of all or he was wasting his money. I was there when she said it, and I think he listened, and hopefully extended his lifespan by overcoming his nicotine addiction.
People listened to what Clo said because not only could they tell she CARED when she told her raw- boned truths, they also could see the twinkle in her eyes and hear her quick and often infectious laughter. She said what she said with a great deal of good humor mixed in.
Losing Clo leaves a large hole in the community hospital where she worked as an ER nurse. She was a great nurse, with many years' experience and a boatload of innate knowledge and common sense. She was also an extremely generous person, giving her time and resources to less fortunate people in need, as the hospital where she worked and general area of AL where she lived had many patients and general residents dealing with poverty and many unfilled needs I know that she was the catalyst for many of us who could follow in her footsteps as she donated clothes, bought food and delivered it, took people without cars to doctor appointments and was a generous- spirited person in so many ways for many years. When she became aware of a person with extraordinary needs, or a family with a sick child and no money, she was the first one to say "Let's start a fund for them! They need us!". I remember a baby once who was going to have to leave the hospital in a diaper and the hospital t shirt, and nothing else. We went out to the mall, which was close to where we worked, and bought clothing for that little one, and did other things for others because we saw their needs. Things such as this are the things I remember many years later. She had the biggest heart, and sadly, I don't think she ever realized how much her friends loved her.
Her greatest joy in life during the mature years of her life was for dogs, especially small dogs. She had no human children of her own, but her fur babies were her family. When we used to text each other shortly before she was killed, she would send me photo after photo of her dogs. That's what she kept stored on her phone, because they mattered so very much to her. I consider myself to be a dog lover as well, being the hu-mom to several fluffs, with 3 special dogs now at the Rainbow Bridge. The first time I went to Clo's house, to pick her up for a meeting we had to attend at the hospital where we worked together (now closed), she laughed and laughed because her little Yorkie bit me on the ankle.. No dog had ever bitten me before, not that it hurt, but because it hurt my feelings that a dog would bite me.
The photo I chose to post of her here on WS is a casual photo and one where she is wearing a T shirt that supports a local animal charity. She was a hands on volunteer for P.A. W.S, a shelter and animal charity in her area.
Clo wasn't perfect, because none of us are. I do not know who Mark Montgomery's attorney or attorneys are, but I hope they do not try to assassinate her character in the hopes of making her ( or the other victim) less of a victim. She deserves dignity in the courtroom.
As Clo told me a few times when I was distraught over the unexpected loss of one of our patients or friends " Dead is dead. We have to deal with it and go on because the living need us". She's dead because of a man with a gun or guns WANTED her dead, and he deserves no less than a Life Without Parole sentence. I would be happier if he got the Death Penalty, but I'm not sure Clo would agree with me.. not because of her apparent " relationship" with the murderer ( whom I knew nothing of until after her murder) but because she wasn't the type to wish anyone dead. She was truly one of those people who was born with a generous spirit and a loving heart.
I believe she died immediately and I choose to believe that she is with her parents, her deceased husband, Toby Stoner, and her many pets who had passed away before her in a much better place than this world. Clo believed in heaven, and I think her soul went to heaven when the first bullet struck her brain.. Mark Montgomery was witnessed as her shooter by his own adult sister, so there is not reasonable doubt that he took her life, but her cannot take the essence of Clo away from this world as long as people are alive who remember the good things she did for everyone she met. Her laughter and her wit, her special way of cutting to the truth and her extremely hard work as a hands on nurse will live on in the memory of those who knew and cared about her.
I miss her, I grieve for the senseless loss of such a productive and vitally alive lady, and I think about her every day. I remember the times we cried together,but mostly, I remember the times she made me laugh so hard that I cried tears of laughter. Her wit was so sharp that I remember it most of all even after so many years apart.
Her death is made harder for me, personally, because we had re-connected after two decades of living hundreds of miles apart, and she was planning to drive out and visit me around the time she was killed. I wish so much we could have had that visit. I believe that if she had visited me, we would have discussed her " relationship" with Montgomery, and I think I could have influenced her in a positive way to be strong, to leave the violent man, and go towards a healthy relationship.. We were that honest with each other, and we understood each other extremely well. Her life mattered to a great many people, and would have touched many more sick, injured, and disadvantaged people whom she could have helped with her skilled nursing care and selfless giving, had she the chance to live.
Thank you for reading.