Kochel Cemetery, 1910
Source: https://www.wikiart.org/
The title of this article isn’t exactly inviting, but I hope you’ll have a very different impression when you finish reading.
Yesterday we said goodbye to a beautiful friend.
A woman who not only accumulated years—91—but, as her obituary says, filled them with “faith, family, service to others, music, travel, learning, laughter, friendship…”
I can attest to this and am grateful for the gift of her unforgettable presence.
After what they call here a “Celebration of Life”, much more appropriate and gentle than the word funeral, family and friends went to the cemetery in a town near Calgary.
It had been a long time since I’d set foot in a cemetery.
That place where we are all, in some way, on a waiting list.
However, on a glorious summer day, walking among the headstones, many adorned with fresh flowers, reading the names of the deceased who rested there, I felt a sense of peace.
After the ceremony, there with the coffin at ground level, each person could take a yellow rose from the wreath adorning it.
I sat on a small bench with my rose, watching the family group sharing tears and hugs.
Then I remembered a phrase I read at the entrance to a cemetery near the city of Cuernavaca in Mexico.
I hope this phrase vindicates the title of my article and allows us to see farewells in this earthly world from a different perspective.
It read: “A place where sorrows end and memories begin.”
Unforgettable Denise, until we meet again…
