Beautiful Reunion

I am sitting down to eat honeydew melon drizzled with lime juice in honor of my mother-in-law who first introduced me to the pleasing and healthful combination of flavors. She passed to another world peacefully last Friday morning about 7:30 a.m. I was privileged to be with her at that moment when she slipped away so quietly we could hardly tell she was gone. I will always treasure that blessing. Time paused reverently. A sense of Sabbath and Resurrection filled the dated wallpapered bedroom just off the living room in the 100 year old house where she was also born. The sun had just risen over the hills and a mist was rising from the lake across the road from her house. It was a breathless, pristine morning. Barely a hint of crisp in the air. I thought to myself, "Of course!" She deserved to be escorted into heaven with the best the little valley had to offer - the valley she had intensely loved and lived in most of her life.

Soft, instrumental, dance music from the forties played quietly by her bedside as she left. In an odd little way it was comforting. She loved the music from bygone days. Her handsome husband took her dancing in their dating years. She was only 32 when death suddenly took him from her. And now they were being reunited. I like to picture in my mind that they danced together their joy in this long-awaited reunion.

We had her funeral yesterday and again the weather was picture perfect. A perfect day with a perfect send-off. All of us lingered in her now empty home afterward reluctant to leave - reluctant to have this last day with her end, knowing that on the morrow we would all have to begin moving forward once more with a life which will never be quite the same again.

This morning as I awoke I was missing her. I could feel she was definitely gone. I had felt a closeness with her off and on during the days between her passing and the funeral. I sensed she was with us, interested and involved - and happy. In fact, I would describe the feeling as joyful. But after the funeral as we were gathered around the casket at the cemetery and after the plot of ground had been dedicated with a prayer of protection and safety until the morning of the resurrection, I suddenly knew she had left. She had bade us all farewell with her love and departed towards that more exalted existence beckoning her. She had moved on. Gradually we drifted in small groups to our cars and exited to await our own time to make the journey she had just embarked upon.