Nine Years Later...

Mom on Atlantic Ocean crossing #3 with my brother Nathan and me- 1959

Gone From My Sight

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone."
Gone where?

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight
to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.

And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"

And that is dying…

*Rev. Luther F. Beecher  "The Parable of Immorality"

I published this poem on my previous blog on April 22, 2014, one year after my mother's death. Today marks the ninth anniversary of her passing and I still feel the void she left. These beautiful words still bring me comfort and remind me of her love of travel and adventure. She had an optimistic and energetic approach to whatever came her way in life and had a positive influence on my brothers and me that lasts to this day. We remember and honour her on this day.

*These words are often attributed to Henry Van Dyke but the prose poem was actually written by Luther F. Beecher, a cousin of Harriet Beecher Stowe.