Michael made this oh-so lovely video after capturing many quiet and profound snapshots of our family spending time with our Grandmother...You can also view it here.
I knew I wanted to travel to Arizona see my Grandmother for a while. It was important for me to go and for my mother to as well. I know how very difficult it is for her...how can it not be?Though there is sadness, pain and so much heartache surrounding the decline of my lovely Granny Kay, Katherine Johnston, we have so much to celebrate as well, the love and the lasting effects of her beautiful life...
I will celebrate my mother, my lovely aunts and my uncle, and the memory of my uncle Patrick so vividly described by my mother which allows me to celebrate him too.
I will celebrate my brother the most incredible person I know and my gorgeous cousins.
I will celebrate all of the wonderful partners we have in our lives that support us and cherish us as we all should be cherished. Family is not always bound by blood but formed by love...
I will celebrate my Grandfather, Mister Mike...the bravest man in my sight today. My heart breaks for him but also sings at the thought of his infinite memories of his wonderful wife.
And I will celebrate the moments. Seeing my Grandmother's sweet brown eyes and those same eyes reflected in the family, holding her hands, The Bean drawing Grandma in her wheelchair...spending time with my family and hearing all of the stories of the before and the now.
I will hold these moments inside, locked tight like a memory that doesn't always speak but simply knows, without a doubt, the love that resides within a family born from a promise, a wife, a mother, a grandmother...a heart within our hearts forever.
I knew you
A pocket of time was stitched
a hole settled in the soft fabric
threads loosened
and time slipped out
slowly
I caught it in my my head
like a memory
A drop of time was spattered
a silken piece fell in eyelashes
rested quietly
and rolled down
your face
I held it in my hand
a reflection
your smile
always inside this threadbare place