Sisters
Took Mom to the airport. She will be attending her sisters funeral in Ottawa. By the time I received the message & booked her ticket she was calm & collected. The voice mail message was tearful & hysterical.
Mom remarked on the peaceful beauty of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery. To rest in peace and have a place of natural beauty where family may take joyful remembrance is important.
Aunt Shirley, born New York, New York Thursday the 24th day of November 1927, had been a tragic figure in the family folklore. The last time I saw her she was in the hospital. Her concerned sons were suggesting nursing home care which she was resisting tooth & nail. I had expected to visit a disoriented and weak women instead was greeted with a huge smile and loads of spunk.
Despite her trials & tribulations I'm sure that's how she faced the world in her good times with smiles & spunk. She bears the name Theresa - also my sister's name & she too had a tragic path & she too faced the world with smiles & spunk. Names seem to carry the past into the present.
Mom is quiet and somewhat oblique regarding her family. She loves them dearly but is quite content to be independently loving them from afar. It's a trait I've inherited. Reflecting now I believe I've inherited many of Mom's traits. I watch her age gracefully and elegantly & wonder if I will go softly into the good night.
The family is fiecely proud of their Irish ancestory & the following was on the Funeral Card.
Remembered Joy
Don 't grieve for me, for now I'm free!
I follow the plan God laid for me..
I saw his face, I heard his call,
I took his hand and left it all...
I could not stay another day,
To love, to laugh, to work, or play;
Tasks left undone must stay that way.
And if my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joy.
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss...
Ah yes, these things I, too, shall miss.
My life's been full, I've savoured much;
Good times, good friends, a loved-one's touch.
Pehaps my time seemed all too brief-
Don't shorten yours with undue grief.
Be not burdened with tears of sorrow,
Enjoy the sunshine of the morrow.
~ Irish Wisdom ~
