My Mom In Memorandum

Judie G.

April 10, 1941-March 30, 2011

My Mom passed away this morning in Michigan with my youngest sister and brother with her. I told her good-bye a few minutes by phone before she died. This picture was taken at the Arizona Botanical Garden in November 2007.

She is Gone

You can shed tears that she is gone
Or you can smile because she has lived
You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back
Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her
Or you can be full of the love that you shared
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday
You can remember her and only that she is gone
Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on
You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back
Or you can do what she would want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

David Harkins

Sarah Brightman, "Pie Jesu":

Raising of the Green

St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time - a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic.

Adrienne Cook

There is a good deal of Irish and Scotch in my heritage. Today I didn't make corned beef and cabbage, drink green beer or do any of the things that American's do to celebrate. Instead I did something that is truer to my heritage...I planted. You could say I am my parents child....that is give me two inches of bare ground and I have to put something in it. My patio has an large area full of rich soil. So with the sun shining and the ground warming, not to mention I'm on a week off and doing a staycation, I put in a potager. Fruit trees, herbs, flowers and vegtables are now stretching their roots down and their green leaves up.

My Mom is truly in her last days. I know that in the next days or weeks a phone call will come. She is now bed bound, at times confused and not always recognizing my sister or brother. It was a hard choice to make to not go to Michigan, but I decided that I needed time after 18 months of not taking a break to catch my breath. But today, when I was planting the garden I felt close to my Mom in spirit. I'm planning to add a bird feeder for hummingbirds to celebrate her life and soon memory as she loves birds.

Some people were doing the wearing of the green today, but I was doing the raising of the green. In bringing forth the magic of the earth, I am connected to my Irish roots and thus my family.

U2, "With or Without You":