The end of an era

I'm the type of person that relishes in the simple joys in life. A cup of flavored coffee, hitting the walk signal in the busy streets of Boston, the excitement of starting a new show. One of my small joys happens to be spying on the lives of my favorite Canadian family, the Pattersons, stars of Lynn Johnston's life work, the comic For Better or for Worse.

I can't remember when I first started to read this comic. It must have been in my hometown, which chose to only run 2 comic strips, and FBOFW was one of them. I enjoyed watching the Patterson kids, so close to my own age, grow up, see how there was humor in everyday life, and observe their struggles and survivorship through typical life problems.

Sadly, after 29 years of producing the strip, Lynn has called it quits. Of course, it's only through my own selfish need to see this family live on that I want her to continue, but she has produced an amazing life's work in a few black and white (color on Sunday!) boxes. Today was her last first-run comic, and like watching The Cosby Show and Friends reruns on television, they will always be around, I'm sad to see the story end.

Excitingly, Lynn is going to go back and re-work her story from start to finish (I think) so it will be fun to go back to the beginning and see the Patterson's before I knew them, but it won't be the same as logging on to her website every morning to see what's new.

I own several signed copies of her collection, and hope to own more in the future. I want to be able to share with others the small joys that Lynn gave me.

Thank you!!!