Tears welled from deep inside me and clung like rain drops upon my cheeks after reading Last Night from the Hospital, by Bob Lonsberry.
He made me feel like I was there with Bernadette Lynch and her family. Too soon Bernadette’s light, a high and bright burning flame will flicker out.
When Bernadette lost her son Michael in April, the only thing I could do was to write a blog post and send a card. Would she like the post? Was the card enough? Questions danced around my brain, but I need not have worried. Her comment: “beautifully written.”
I saw my former Listen to Your Mother (LTYM) cast mate in May at the third annual LTYM: Rochester production at the Lyric Theatre. The producers dedicated the show to the memory of Michael and his family.
“I’m so sorry about Michael,” I said to Bernadette as she leaned on her cane for support. She smiled and gave me a warm embrace. Tears stung my face. I was right where I needed to be.
I am blessed to have known Bernadette Lynch: Her grace and kindness, her warm embrace, her smile, her laugh, and her love of life and family.
Living with grief.
I remember other lights in my life: friends and family whom I have loved and lost. I remember the tiny moments of excitement, laughter, contentment, fleeting conversations, and shared stories. There is beauty in transience. Still, some days are more difficult than others. Some days I forget to breathe.
Like the weather, life is ever-changing.
Change brings happiness, joy suffering, fear, and transformation. A healthy body cannot last forever. The body decays, falls ill, and dies. The same way a seed is not the flower, although it produces a flower, a child is not the same when he grows to a young man, and then to an old man.
I want more from life.
I want more long days filled with sunshine, lingering walks, biking along the canal, and watching hummingbirds zip into the yard to drink from the blood-red feeder. Before the leaves turn a brighter hue, I want one last sip of summer.
Stay in the “Now“
Nothing that belongs to this earth is free. So I strive to live each day aware, awake and inspired. It’s not easy and I fail more than I succeed, but I’ll keep trying. In the words of Robert Frost: “Nothing gold can stay.”
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Touching stuff.