Second Full Day
...of the Second Year of my father being on the other side of the veil.
Grief is an interesting companion and how we experience it, like most experiences, is quite “individual” - I expect, anyway. What do I know? I know how this seems to me.
I’m grateful that my father is no longer suffering and that his decline, slow in some ways, was rapid in others. His mental acuity never left him and we were able to share things of the mind that we both enjoyed. He was easy to keep amused. His sense of humor so sharp that he’d wake himself up laughing by telling himself jokes in his sleep. I think that speaks of a particularly fine spirit. He loved animals and mostly was tolerant and kind of his fellow human beings.
It may seem to be a bit obsessive to be writing about his life so frequently, but it was a big life, lived out relatively humbly yet comfortably over the course of more than 91 years. We should all be so fortunate. Naturally, like all of us, he was a mixture of qualities. The outstanding quality to my mind was a quiet enthusiasm for a range of different projects and, like so many of those that I admire, the ability to set a goal and then to do what was necessary to accomplish it. His publications, which were many, show this. His unpublished works which now occupy the better part of the second bedroom/office of my condo here in DC, are now in my care and will be coming out as I continue stewarding his legacy.
Tomorrow, I’ll go down to Williamsburg to visit his wife of over 64 years and take her out to lunch, probably at Second Street Bistro. Then I’ll drive back here to DC. It’s about all I can do for her at this point. There is a certain satisfaction in this. Mom had a fall on Monday that sent her to the hospital to check for fractures, but it seems there were none, thankfully. It is good to keep the elderly in mind and to extend kindness.
Thank you all for being a part of my journey if you are reading this and keep on being kind to one another out there. We are all us; one species of primate making our way through existence - a very temporary condition. Love Remains and…
Love Forgives Everything!