For Bob, October 21st 2007
Before you know what kindness really is
You must lose things,
Feel the future dissolve in a moment
Like salt in a weakened broth.
From “KINDNESS” by Naomi Shihab Nye
As you all know, I lost my sister Diane a few years ago. She had not been ill…she just died… suddenly…drowned while doing work with the Guatemalan people. I’ve come to know the acute woe you feel with sudden death. I’ve also come to know what it is like to live with a catastrophic prolonged illness…through Bob.
In March of 1998 Diane said... “Where is God in all of this…I don’t know…but He has promised to be with us always in the darkness and in the light…In the darkness we cannot see or feel…Know that you are surrounded by people that do love you both and your family as well...” And here we are with YOU… our family and friends.....thank you.
ALS has made our old dreams die…but new dreams emerge…We have learned to mourn each loss and move forward…And this Bob has done with elegance and undying courage...I love him for this.
Bob is a sophisticated man…even though he hales from a wheat farm in rural Lindsborg Kansas. But, he draws his contentment from simple things…a ride in the van to the boardwalk in Brighton Beach, the dinners and lunches and movies with you...our friends, watching Tiger Woods play, being glued to a Yankees game or CSI, listening to opera. Because of your KINDNESS, Bob is at home and can enjoy all these simple things.
A mixture of emotions sweeps over me tonight…High on this list is JOY, LOVE and GRATEFULNESS.
Herman Melville, a New Yorker by the way, said “We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads”… You all are those threads.
Thank you again for your KINDNESS.
I would like to leave you with a quote from James Baldwin…”The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out” but you all know this already ….you have kept on our light these past years…
Love and Thanks, Maureen
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