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Tag: death

Rest In Peace, Live Forever

Elegiac poems are immediate and touching because they speak from the heart.  I heard another one tonight at Sacred Grounds, and learned that a friend had passed away.  It felt strange, because I just sent her an email this morning.  She was one of the names on my mass email list.

A number of friends have died in the past years but their email addresses remain active.  In a way the dearly departed have been immortalized.  The communication is active, albeit one sided.

Death does not exist in cyber space.  Memories are kept alive by Google and Youtube.  It seems even easier to keep in touch with friends who are no longer around.  They are just one button away.

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The Sentinel

Old Woman and the Toad by Judy Somerville

My father’s neighbor Mr. Wong passed away recently.  It was a quiet affair, as he was old and had been sick for a long time.   I visited the Wongs briefly last year, to invite them to my father’s birthday party.  He and his wife were cordial, said they could not go outside by themselves, not even next door.

Mrs. Wong used to be quite a beauty.  She had some Spanish features on her face–big eyes and a tall nose.  Since their confinement she wore a knitted cap to cover her grey hair and all her teeth were gone.  Every time I pulled the car into my father’s driveway she pulled aside  the curtain and waved at me.  In fact, the once silky white curtain was dirty and torn where she pulled every time she saw a familiar face. That was her communication with the world.

The house has been dark since the death of Mr. Wong, and the curtain stayed still.  She may have abandoned her post out of loneliness without realizing that she had been lonely.

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