Everywhere

She was everywhere. In "Dona Nobis" and "Amen, Amen." The beauty of Mount Adnah in June. The elegant urn. "Adventurer, antiquarian, artist." "Mother to Alexander and Theodore." And "Live simply."

Hard to watch the boys, 5 and 8 and wearing funeral attire and holding cards and flowers, spoon their mother's ashes onto the burial plot. Easier to watch Will run to Theo after the service to engage in kid conversation. Children need support from their friends, too. Wondering why death has to be the way that it is, here, in this country. Enough then to be comforted by the children being children. And thinking, still, about the words on the back of the printed program. Thinking about the words. Thinking about her.

Together

And
Now that we
have come to the end
of this time and place
my friend
how shall we spend
the future

We cannot ever be
sure
of the times ahead
but
let it always
be said
We were very together
then
When
it mattered.

-Ja Jahannes