“So long old pal..”
To Maggie,
With gratitude for your unstinting, unconditional love, for
the opportunity to share in your wild and boundless joy, and for your old soul
spirit that will stay with all of us whose lives you touched. Rest in peace.
That’s the Facebook version and it does a good job. The sojourn of goodbyes ends with a solo trip
to the lake house where we both have always been the happiest. In the last hours of her life
she patiently and thoroughly licked the tears from every inch of my cheeks,
eyes, nose and lips.
The last white hairs…finding them on the cuffs of yoga
pants, in the creases of the leather couch that was off limits for at least an hour after it entered our house, on the last of the dog beds I can’t bear to wash and
give away.
James Taylor singing..
Oh, it's enough to be on your way,
It's enough just to cover ground,
It's enough to be moving on.
Home, build it behind your eyes,
Carry it in your heart,
Safe among your own.
So long, old gal...
