On some level, we know that life and death walk hand in hand….yet it’s a truth we manage to close our eyes to until it hits home on a personal level. For my family, that loss was a mother….grandmother….sister, aunt, friend. My husband’s mother, my mother-in-law, Mildred Rhodes. I was fortunate in her, as there wasn’t any mother/daughter-in-law angst between us. She accepted me wholeheartedly, because Kevin loves me. Who could ask for a greater blessing?
When I struggle to make sense of the incomprehensible I turn to nature for solace. I take my camera outside and look for beauty–a bird, a flower, a sunrise or sunset, and I am rewarded with a small miracle to remind me the world is still turning, in spite of our loss. That life goes on, even as it ends. Today’s gift was a single cluster of surprise lilies, ten days after the rest were finished. I don’t question why it came up today; I know it was meant to, that I was meant to find it. Of particular significance is the flower’s color: pink, Mildred’s favorite. It’s as if she reached out a hand and touched me as she passed….and I am comforted.