Friday, August 17, 2018
I loved Aunt Ellie’s voice, her laugh, her sense of humor, her heart. I will miss her terribly, but we all have such wonderful memories that we can cherish always. She has found the music room and is sipping her champagne now.
The following was such a comfort for me when we lost Dad and Mom. I hope it comforts you now.
Gone from my Sight
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side
spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and
starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of
beauty and strength. I stand to watch her at length until
she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the
sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says:
“There, she is gone!”
“Gone where?”
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in
mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my
side and she is just as able to bear her load of living
freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just
at the moment when someone at my side says:
“There, she is gone!”
There are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout:
“Here she comes!”
And, that is dying.
~Adapted from the poetry of Henry Van Dyke
When Dad passed I imagined Lynn was the one who said: “Here she (the ship) comes!” And when Mom passed I imagined Dad and Lynn standing together on the shore saying, “Here she comes!”
They wait for us now.
Love always,
Karen and Bob
