Category Archives: death

Oct11

goodbye, ethel.

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“Along with a lifetime’s work in social justice and human rights, our mother, age 96, widow of *Robert F. Kennedy, leaves behind nine surviving children, (2 others preceded her in death), 34 grandchildren and 24 great-great grandchildren, along with numerous nieces and nephews, all of whom love her dearly,” the family statement said.
—
‘if you see something wrong, if you speak out…you can change it.’
-ethel kennedy
—
*Robert Francis Kennedy, also known as RFK, was married to Ethel Kennedy, and was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the U.S. Attorney General  from 1961-1964, and as a U.S. senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in 1968, when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination.
May27

lest we forget.

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    “heroism doesn’t always happen in a burst of glory.

    sometimes small triumphs and large hearts change the course of history.”

    –mary roach

    —

    there are very few families in this country who have not been touched in some way by the military conflicts, both current and past. thank you for your sacrifice. “LEST WE FORGET” is so very important for a reason. it implores us to be wary as a nation, because a nation that forgets runs the risk of losing freedom or repeating mistakes of the past.

    Jan6

    tribute.

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    during the wake

    we all gathered inside

    close together

    to talk, eat, laugh, cry, listen to music, tell stories, remember

    celebrate a life

    the children from 4-10

    all played together

    went outside

    chalk in hand

     wrote a beautiful welcome to all who would come

    and loving tributes to the one who had left.

    “tears are words that need to be written.”

    -paul coelho

    Jan5

    time runs out.

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    “It is easy to mourn the lives we aren’t living. Easy to wish we’d developed other talents, said yes to different offers. Easy to wish we’d worked harder, loved better, handled our finances more astutely, been more popular, stayed in the band, gone to Australia, said yes to the coffee or done more bloody yoga.

    It takes no effort to miss the friends we didn’t make and the work we didn’t do the people we didn’t do and the people we didn’t marry and the children we didn’t have. It is not difficult to see yourself through the lens of other people, and to wish you were all the different kaleidoscopic versions of you they wanted you to be. It is easy to regret, and keep regretting, ad infinitum, until our time runs out.

    But it is not lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is the regret itself. It’s the regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other people’s worst enemy.

    We can’t tell if any of those other versions would have been better or worse. Those lives are happening, it is true, but you are happening as well, and that is the happening we have to focus on.”

    —

    in memoriam of r.s. – you will be greatly missed and thanks for the music

    —

    credits:

    text: Matt Haig – The Midnight Library, 2020.

    art: Grant Haffner – Into the night, 1978

    Dec27

    two hearts.

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    yesterday

    my sister let us know 

     she lost her husband

    of so many years

    on christmas day

    in this

    the same year

    he lost his father

    before too long

    we’ll fly to her

    to be together

    for a remembrance and celebration of his life.

    —

    “sympathy is two hearts tugging at one load.”

    -charles henry parkhurst

    Nov3

    dia de los muertos.

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    one of our classrrom families
    came in to teach us about
    this very moving and beautiful tradition.
    what a lovely way to celebrate and remember our loved ones.
    Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a Mexican holiday celebrated on November 1 and 2 and is a time to remember and honor deceased loved ones. 
    The holiday has its roots in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures,  and it is a unique and beautiful blend of indigenous and Catholic traditions.
    On Dia de los Muertos, families build altars in their homes and cemeteries to honor their deceased loved ones. The altars are decorated with photos of the deceased, as well as their favorite foods, drinks, and other belongings. Families also visit cemeteries to clean and decorate graves, and to leave offerings for their loved ones.
    Dia de los Muertos is a time for celebration, not mourning. It is a time to remember the lives of loved ones who have passed on, and to celebrate the bond that continues to connect them to the living.
    —

    “to live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.”

    -thomas campbell, author

    Oct18

    taking flight.

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    when playing outside

    the kinder found a dead bird

    they called out to everyone to come over to see it

     they said goodbye to the bird and told her that they were sad that she had died

      we put a circle of pretty leaves around her to keep her safe on her journey.

    —

    “teach them to be kind to animals and they will grow up to be kind to people too.”

    -rumi

    Sep11

    when i was here.

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               I wondered whether I should start this toast by saying, “When I was here in 1776…”
               – Speech at the British ambassador’s residence in Washington, 2007

    During the queen’s trip to the United States in 2007, President George W. Bush stumbled over his lines at the welcome ceremony, accidentally stating that Elizabeth had helped celebrate the U.S. bicentennial in 1776, rather than 1976 — adding 200 years to her age. At a later speech, attended by Bush, the queen playfully teased the President, provoking much laughter from him and the assembled dignitaries.

    1926-2022

    —

    art credit: eleanor tomlinson

    May30

    on memorial day.

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    “yours has the suffering been, the memory shall be ours.”

    -henry wadsworth longfellow

     

    on memorial day

     

     

     

     

     

    —

    photo credit: marde ross and company

    May26

    for texas. and everywhere.

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    “the world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.

    but there is much that is fair.

    and though, in all lands,

    love is now mingled with grief,

    it still grows, perhaps the greater.”

    -j.r.r. tolkien