"As Ed would say, 'No mandatory meetings unless a keg is involved'."  Well. Ed got his keg meeting AND the reunion he's wanted for years.  Sadly, it was just after his funeral.  Debbie had known Ed Hughes since she started at WTKR back in '85.  When she first got started Floor Directing, the 'talent' intimidated her.  Ed, being Ed told her "Kiddo, don't let the egos and talent get to you, when they bark, just bark back."   even now she calls him 'her buddy'.  Debbie left WTKR in '94 to have our first child, Cheyenne but never lost contact with Ed.  Occasionally, when they both had the time, they'd meet, have lunch and talk.  I know Debbie never thought it was often enough and I am sure Ed felt the same.  The last couple of years have been hard on Debbie, talking to Ed now and then and knowing she might lose him to the cancer but Ed was always pretty up beat.

June 1st, Debbie took Cody, our son, to the Norfolk Zoo for a class trip and on the way home from the zoo, thought about stopping at WTKR to say 'hello' and ask about Ed but something told her she wouldn't like to know.  That was at 1 pm.  Ed died an hour later, at 2.

I can only tell this from the outsider's point of view, from things I've been told.  Many times Ed and Debbie would be out on a story and she'd come back with pictures, like the one above, taken on the Trump yacht, or the ten or so others we have that Ed took of her.  She'd tell me of things like the time they went to a local theatre that was being renovated, her with a heavy camera, and up on the balcony sans handrail.  Debbie doesn't have a sense for heights and would have fallen if Ed hadn't reached out and pulled her back.

Debbie misses Ed and always will.  I miss Ed for Debbie.  Thanks Ed, for being a friend to her.