WHEN OUR LOVED ONES LEAVE US

When our loved ones leave us, one of the ways we keep their presence alive is by retelling the stories.  How was it when they were younger?  What were their favorite stories about themselves?  About us?

Now that they are gone, our imaginations are somehow freed to claim them in a more expanded way -- fanciful and yet true.  Our nostalgia is genuine.  It is also benevolent and tender.  We see them in their fragility, as figures in a drama suspended in time, taking their places along with the legendary figures they used to tell us about.  Perhaps we know them in greater clarity -- and charity -- than we could when we were engaged in the dynamics of daily exchange.

My life will continue to be blessed as the stories of my loved one develop and settle in my mind.

-- Martha Whitmore Hickman in “Healing After Loss”


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