Gone too soon at 95 1/2. My darling darling died.

[highplainsdem]

108. You're very welcome! Thanks for posting the photo, larger than I saw it on that website, with your guy

(second from the left there) looking so handsome and talented. It's a great pic. Had you seen it before?

I imagine he's dancing in heaven, young and healthy again.

I found out today that my oldest relative, the last of her generation of the family, probably has less than 6 months to live. My heart is breaking at the thought of losing her here, and at the thought of how this is hurting her children and grandchildren (I've never seen grown children and grandchildren so close to a matriarch). But she has so many loved ones to reunite with, including beloved pets that I believe will come running when she crosses over. And I believe she will be healthy and young again then, free of pain for the first time in years.

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone."

Gone where?

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.

And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"

And that is dying...