Sunday, June 07, 2009
We call her Granny
| My grandmother died yesterday. I still have not come to grips with that simple statement. It was, at the same time, a surprise and not unexpected. She'd been in the hospital, but just hours earlier plans were being made for her to go home. My grandmother died yesterday. I really wish at this point I could be thoughtful or funny, or entertaining, or wise, but I can't. The only thing I seem to be capable of is being numb. What is getting me through life at this point is the knowledge that she is now, finally, reunited with her best friend, my grandfather, after being apart for 19 years. I am reminded of one of the best eulogies I have seen or heard in my life. I watch Craig Ferguson on occasion. Usually he's on a bit too late for me. But last Christmas vacation I caught the episode just after his mother had died. The entire episode can be out split into parts online, but this is my favorite. If the video above doesn't play click here (The poem is incorrectly attributed to Victor Hugo.) Parable of Immortality Author: Henry Van Dyke I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, "There she goes!" Gone where? Gone from my sight . . . that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "There she goes!" there are other eyes watching her coming... and other voices ready to take up the glad shout... "Here she comes!" Perhaps someday I will. Right now, though, my words fail the emotions I have, and fall woefully short of what it would take to honor my grandmother. I hope that, at least for now, you'll allow Craig to speak on my behalf. |
