Two weeks ago my mother died, and there has been a constant hum, the spooling of an old movie reel, running in the background of my mind, showing pictures, places, people, and snippets of conversation, from years gone. The flickering film has been loud, cluttered with memories, echoing laughter and tears, demanding attention —threatening to drown me in its cacophony and spill over into my days. But relentless time is already softening the images and dulling the roar as I move through sunshine filled hours and dark nights, talking with family and friends, running errands, sending emails, tending to students, fixing food and murmuring to the cats. Time moves on. My mother would encourage us to get on with it. And we are…life is for living.
At Thanksgiving dinner we talked about memorable events from the past 11 months, including the deaths of several dear ones, relationships that collapsed and jobs that didn’t pan out. On the upside, in the last year, we spent wonderful, precious time together, laughed a lot, cheered on academic accomplishments, saw family members move around the country, improved our home, and watched each other grow and learn. We lived.
Love you.
Love you right back. 💟