Barb At 30
Memories evoke emotions. Today, I scanned a series of photos. All of them brought tears to my eyes. The emotions stirred deep as I viewed my Barbara as a bride, young mother, and grandmother. I actually screamed at her, “why?” It doesn’t help, it won’t bring her back. The scream merely let me vent an emotion that is long over due.
Her prayers and poems did the same. She saved every poem that she thought was beautiful, or conveyed her own thinking. Some of them were insights into her future. Others were directed at me and the kids expressing her love. I scanned a bunch of them. Her five year anniversary is nearing, and I want to give each of the children a “Legacy Book.” The book will contain her favorite poems, prayers, and the journal she kept while going through chemo-therapy twenty-nine years ago. I will add the photos of her as a child with her parents, and as a young nurse. I’ll include Barb’s geneology in the form of a family tree. The information will be spotty since only Aunt Marie remains from her family. At ninety-three, Marie’s memory is not what she would like it to be.
Barb’s children and grandchildren need to have this memento of her. The love she conveys to us in her clippings, and writings is real. She loved us in life, and she left us with many reminders of how much she loved each of us. I hope the book has the same effect on the kids as it does on me everytime I work on it.
This Thursday, July 10, Barbara would have celebrated her seventieth birthday. Instead we will celebrate her fifth birthday into the kingdom of heaven. There is a special mass for her Thursday, and I will attend. It is one way to be near her again.
I will present the Legacy Book to the kids a month from now on the anniversary of her death.
Filed under: family, Funk, grief, Memories | Tagged: emotions, family photos, geneology, legacy, legacy book, love, poems, prayers | Leave a comment »
