Dear Readers,

Last Friday our Mom died at the age of 90. While we knew she was ready to go, we weren’t ready to let her go. And given that she lived a full and accomplished life, it still is never easy to lose a parent especially since our Dad died in 2011 and we had been occupied with helping her grieve and dealing with the post-chaotic aftermath of Dad’s rich life.

The following is a piece I wrote that I shared at Mom’s funeral with the sentiment that cherishing a life among loved ones is commensurate with the amount of sorrow one feels when they die but it’s worth it.

A Farewell to Mom

No words can express the deep sadness occupying our hearts these days.

Deep sadness because the one we universally loved is gone.

Innocently, she severed not an arm or leg but our collective spirit.

Such is a mystery we can’t comprehend as we kneel here so wounded.

We all still breathe and will go on, but we will march through this time amended, because our lives can never be what they were before.

If only she had not engaged our hearts so intensely while she had lived; if only she had not captured us so completely with her spirit, her love, her soul forged into ours.

But, alas this is not the case, and we pause, waiting indefinitely between the notes, waiting with hope that the music will resume again someday…