I may be away from the computer and not posting for a couple days. Our router apparently had a virus and has passed away. Until it gets replaced our little internet cafe of a livingroom has only one computer which I am sharing with 3 kids.. well, 2 teenagers and one adult (Dylan's 18), and I have limited time here.
My dear friend and neighbour Gary ( & his wife Jan & family) lost his Mom and Dad within 24 hours between Sunday and Monday. I left work early to go to the funeral home last night. It was such a love story between his parents, Hollywood couldn't do better. Love can be so amazing!
VANDERREEST, Mathea Eliza (Tilla) (nee Dinnissen) AND Gerardus (Gerry) A beautiful tragedy has occurred. They could not live apart and so it is with profound sadness that we announce that the very heart and soul of our family passed away a mere 20 hours apart. Tilla, beloved wife of Gerry for 55 years, passed away at the tender age of 82 on April 1, 2007 and Gerry, devoted husband of Tilla, passed away on April 2, 2007. They leave behind their loving and devoted children: Chris and his wife Lynne, Ellen and her husband Denis Adams, Carmen Vanderreest and Gary and his wife Jan. Adored and cherished Oma/Omaatje and Opa to Janet and her husband Owen Keenan, Conor, Aaron and Marijke Vanderreest and Jared and Daniel Vanderreest. They will be dearly missed by their remaining brothers and sisters in Holland and their families: Cor Dinnissen, Lies van Gool, Riet Peters and her husband Frans, Henk Dinnissen and his wife Riek and Riny Bouma and by their many nieces, nephews and cousins in Canada and Holland. A tender love story to the very end and an awesome example of love and devotion to all who knew them. Sincerest thanks to all the staff at both St. Michael's Hospital, especially Dr. Vein Campbell and the Toronto East General Hospital who reunited Mom and Dad for their final days. Friends will be received at the SHERRIN FUNERAL HOME, 873 Kingston Road (west of Victoria Park Avenue), Toronto (416-698-2861) on Tuesday from 2 - 4 and 6 - 8 p.m. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Wednesday, April 4, 2007 at 1 o'clock from St. John's Roman Catholic Church, 794 Kingston Road. Interment Resthaven Memorial Gardens. If desired, memorial contributions to the CNIB or the Heart and Stroke Foundation would be appreciated by the family. Friends are invited to sign Tilla and Gerry's Book of Condolence at www.sherrinfuneral.ca
I am experimenting with embedding a video here - posting videos here on my blog.. this one which hopefully should show up is:
Cute Otters Holding Hands
url (in case this doesn't work) is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epUk3T2Kfno
Psalm and Lament
ReplyDeleteDonald Justice
Hialeah, Florida
in memory of my mother (1897–1974)
The clocks are sorry, the clocks are very sad.
One stops, one goes on striking the wrong hours.
And the grass burns terribly in the sun,
The grass turns yellow secretly at the roots.
Now suddenly the yard chairs look empty, the sky looks empty,
The sky looks vast and empty.
Out on Red Road the traffic continues; everything continues.
Nor does memory sleep; it goes on.
Out spring the butterflies of recollection,
And I think that for the first time I understand
The beautiful ordinary light of this patio
And even perhaps the dark rich earth of a heart.
(The bedclothes, they say, had been pulled down.
I will not describe it. I do not want to describe it.
No, but the sheets were drenched and twisted.
They were the very handkerchiefs of grief.)
Let summer come now with its schoolboy trumpets and fountains.
But the years are gone, the years are finally over.
And there is only
This long desolation of flower-bordered sidewalks
That runs to the corner, turns, and goes on,
That disappears and goes on
Into the black oblivion of a neighborhood and a world
Without billboards or yesterdays.
Sometimes a sad moon comes and waters the roof tiles.
But the years are gone. There are no more years.
Hey Paul.. love the poem.
ReplyDeleteThis is the poem Gary wrote for his parents:
Poem Gary wrote:
They travelled together hand in hand
They came with each other to this new land
They lived and loved for all these years
Smile for them please and shed no more tears
They have left us now, they passed together
Their love united today and forever