A Hard Morning
This morning we are burying a very good friend. Her struggle with cancer was one of those heartbreaking stories where we thought she was getting better and then suddenly something went wrong. The day we got to Australia we got the news that she had been taken to ICU, then they moved her to hospice. We got to visit her once before she faded, we told her about the kangaroos and koalas and the aboriginal art we saw, and she smiled to hear it. She was very weak and looked a hundred years old. She was fifty.
One of the first signs of human culture emerging from the animal world is the presence of graves, the attempt to overcome death with memory and love. I'll sing a couple of songs at the cemetery this morning, an Episcopalian minister will speak, her husband will say the Mourner's Kaddish.
One of the first signs of human culture emerging from the animal world is the presence of graves, the attempt to overcome death with memory and love. I'll sing a couple of songs at the cemetery this morning, an Episcopalian minister will speak, her husband will say the Mourner's Kaddish.
posted by JimK at 8:56 AM
4 Comments:
Jim, I'm so sorry. Our love is with your family today.
We are helping our sons raise money for the Alzheimer's Memory Walk - they've never raised funds on their own before though they have been participating in the walk for years. We walk in memory of my mother. My mother-in-law would have been 76 last Thursday. We are all very mindful of our losses right now. It is never the right time for final farewells.
My thoughts are with you and your family.
Yom Kippur, which was yesterday, is a time when Jews face, among other things, the fact that we are mortal. And we remind ourselves of the hope that there is something beyond outselves that has meaning, and of the belief that if we live our lives justly, caring about others, that we will be part of that larger meaning.
Jim, anyone who was a close friend of you and your family surely was part of that larger meaning.
Very sorry to hear of your loss Jim. My thoughts are with you, your family, and friends.
Peace.
Cynthia
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