and it continues

Mortality...a dear, old friend died today.  I have a card, addressed to her on my desk.  I didn't get it out in time for Christmas or her birthday.  I was shooting for Easter, no May Day.  This morning I decided I had to write between lessons and get it out to her.  Today.

Then a mutual friend let me know our friend was gone.

She was almost 95, I think.  She led the most amazing life.  I met her about 22 years ago. We were both at a celebration, after we prevented the siting of a nuclear dump.  I had a toddler on my back. She was about 70.

About a week later I got a card in the mail telling me how beautiful my little one was.  It was the beginning of a sweet friendship. My kids saw her as a grandmother, almost.  She was also so concerned about them.  My youngest son took his first serious girlfriend there to meet her.

She lived in the south of France, and in Hawaii. She knew the art set in New York City.  She and her late husband travelled through the Orient in the Viet Nam War era.  She was politically active until the end.  And she loved, practiced and supported the arts.

We always think we'll have just a little more time to say goodbye.  But then we don't.

I got a card from her recently that said she talks about us - me and my children - everyday. I never got to tell her that I thought of her every day too.  She was as important to me. While we decorated Easter eggs, my kids remembered decorating hundreds at her house.  She had a huge Easter egg hunt every year, for any kids who wanted to come.

Her house was full of art and antiquities, all jumbled together in refined chaos. You could just tell she had been somewhere.

We really loved her.  I really loved her.  She made my life better.

Today, I found out she was gone early. I was still working.  I was a little distracted, but okay.  When I was writing reports,  I had an image of her meeting some old friends who had passed over.  That's when I realized she was on that side, and I started to cry.

I've been letting my kids know all day. I called to tell one son, then mentioned "the gene".  He said he didn't want to know.  We all have something that puts us at risk. We are all going to die. What good is it to panic?

So mortality remains the theme of the moment.

How are you?  Keep me posted on your life please.  I love you.

Clare