wake

You are not going to believe what I did today. I went to a wake.

That is three deaths in just over three months. I really didn't want to go, and I knew that since I did not know the family of this lovely sweet older woman that I have worked with for the past five years, the family would not wonder why I had not shown up. But I reminded myself that this was something we do for the other people and not for ourselves, and that I, as a grieving daughter myself, should go and say the kind of things that I appreciated most to the grieving daughters of the lovely sweet older lady that I used to work with.

I got to the funeral and met my editor outside. She had already been inside but she turned right around and went back in with me. I looked at the many photos of the lovely old lady at her own wedding, at the weddings of her children and with each of her very many grandchildren. Then I regarded the lovely old lady lying there with a color lipstick she never would have chosen in real life. Then I asked my editor which were her daughters and my editor pointed one out to me. I took a few minutes to gather myself, this wasn't about me, and I approached her daughter. I told the daughter I had worked with her mother and then I told her what a light her mother had been in the office, how I would always wonder out loud to the kids if she would be there when I was trying to entice them into stopping by. Because my kids enjoyed her very much too. How seeing the lovely sweet lady behind her computer uplifted the whole visit. The lovely sweet old lady had a candy jar. She was always very generous with the kids. Most of the time we stopped by the drug store to offer her a bag of candy to keep the jar stocked with.

I must have said the right thing because the daughter grabbed my arm and dragged me to meet her sisters. I shared my feelings with the sisters. They all wept, and they hugged me hard. And I told them how special their mother was.

Comments

[Laura]

You are a wonderful lady.