Pasty Central is one of those Internet sites which changes daily.  I suppose projects like ours are a lot like old TV shows.  Remember Gunsmoke in the 60's?  Perhaps you were among the loyal viewers who returned week after week to see what new challenges Marshall Dillon had to face... how Miss Kitty kept peace at the Longbranch... or what new arguments Doc and Festus would tangle in. After a decade of transporting us to that other place and time, our friends rode off into the sunset and the series came to an end.

When will the final episode of Pasty Central appear?  Hopefully not for a while yet.  There are still so many scenes which the Pasty Cam could bring, so many people who have thoughts to share on Past-E-Mail, or whose faces we've come to recognize on these pages.  And that brings me to a couple of folks who have meant so much to the rest of us here at Pasty Central (Still Waters Assisted Living Community).
 

Remember the overhead shot of the folks peeling the veggies?  This picture first appeared in the Detroit Free Press about a year and a half ago.  Then it was reprinted in newspapers around the US.  The guy with the baseball cap at the left end of the table is Ed Metteri... ...Eddie passed away this summer.

One of our long-time residents, Ed Metteri was a jovial giant of a man who had spent years working in the copper mines of the U.P.  His thundering laugh could often be heard in the 200-Wing of Still Waters, where he would sit for hours reading National Geographic, looking through his Daily Mining Gazette, or drawing designs on styrofoam cups.  He was an avid radio listener, loved to take saunas, and would sit on the smoking-room porch at night listening to crickets.  Eddie was truly a yooper - loved trips to Brockway, going to the Calumet Theatre with Joe Kirkish, and rides on the Isle Royale Queen III.  And he sure enjoyed pasties.  We'll miss Eddie.

Another one of our well-loved resident pastymakers was Kathryn Sullivan.  You may have tuned in for her 100th birthday live on the Pasty Cam last year, or you may have seen her in your local paper with an "I Love Pasties" T-shirt.  A retired school teacher, she was supportive of our Internet project, though it was always a mystery to her how we could possibly receive e-mail.  She loved children, was totally deaf, and could often be heard exclaiming "God bless you!".  He called her home on Friday the 13th last month.

For the rest of us, life at Pasty Central goes on.  None of us know how long we have, there are no guarantees.  We'll meet new folks, make new friends, never forgetting the old ones.  And, Lord willing, we'll continue to bring you a "glimpse of life in Michigan's U.P." on these pages for a while longer.  Hopefully you, too, can join us for a few more sunsets before it's time to ride off into one.