I do not deny that a man who reaches a certain ageMom passed away in April of this past year. Her younger brother, my uncle, passed away this late fall, and this morning her older sister, my aunt, passed away. All three siblings passed within 9 months of each other.
can no longer hope
that those from whom he came will remain
still alive with him, as my mother once
- Avot Yeshururn, from Memories Are a House
I know I've posted this quote from a Margery Allingham novel before, but it is worth reposting whenever there is grieving over a lost loved one:
"Well, you know, it's an evil thing, this attempt to reverse the process of mourning." The Canon stepped back on to his own territory and became a different being. "Mourning is not forgetting," he said gently, his helplessness vanishing and his voice becoming wise. "It is an undoing. Every minute tie has to be untied and something permanent and valuable recovered and assimilated from the knot. The end is gain, of course. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be made strong, in fact."
- Margery Allingham, from Tigers In The Smoke
I have such fond memories of my aunt. Big family Christmas Eves in a small house, all those summers just outside of Winthrop, dancing with our son in a hospital parking lot one time when mom was in the hospital, her quick sharp sense of humor. All knots to untie and from which to reclaim something precious.
Such are the little memories of you;
They come and go, return and lie apart
From all main things of life; yet more than they,
With noiseless feet, they come and grip the heart.
- George McClellan, from To Theodore
Traffic was very light this morning, the commute was extra short, the playlist short as well:
- You've Never Seen Everything, Bruce Cockburn
- Peace Memory, Pat Metheny
- Killing the Blues, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
- Blue Skies, Landon Pigg
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