My best friend died 7 years ago today. I was fortunate to have her in my life and even more fortunate that she was not only my dearest friend, but my grandmother. Here is the eulogy I wrote for her.
"11/14/97
Trying to capture NeeNee into words is trying to capture a smell or a feeling. Wherever she went there was home. Now that she has past we have to find that part of ourselves, that essence of her, and reconstruct and redefine it to find our home. It is not that our home was lost. It has been altered and can be found by the recollection of the large and minute conversations, interactions, hugs, handholds and kisses. The pain of loss seems somehow to collect the years of memories and flash them before our eyes as if we were the ones about to pass. Does this composite of recollection form a myth or does it solidify what we knew the truth to be? Either way it is this that we carry with us of our lost one into the future. We were so lucky that NeeNee gave us the strength, love and the ability to learn to help us redefine our lives without her.
Where does this leave us? Not as the limbs of a tree whose trunk has died, but as a diamond formed by turmoil, pressure, and difficulty. NeeNee was always the center, but now we must form a chain, each link being connected to form a whole."
I love you, NeeNee. I will miss you always.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
thanks for making me sniffle. beautiful.
i wish i'd had time to be as close to my grandmother as you were to yours.
-xox- mynx
Post a Comment