Read by Jennifer for Rosa and Fernando, at their graveside, now that they are reunited:

(author unknown)

In heaven's embrace, you're now

entwined,

Your love, a story, forever

enshrined,

I miss your touch, your voices so

dear,

The moments we shared, when

you were near.

A love eternal, through joy and

strife,

As husband and wife, you shared

a life,

Now reunited, in heaven's sweet

kiss,

In tender silence, your love, I

miss.

In whispered prayers, I'll find my

peace,

A love unbroken, a bond that's

ceaseless,

My dear ones, forever near,

Heaven's embrace, undying,

clear.

Read by Jennifer at Rosa and Fernando's graveside: 

When Great Trees Fall

Maya Angelou

When great trees fall,

rocks on distant hills shudder,

lions hunker down

in tall grasses,

and even elephants

lumber after safety.

When great trees fall

in forests,

small things recoil into silence,

their senses

eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,

the air around us becomes

light, rare, sterile.

We breathe, briefly.

Our eyes, briefly,

see with

a hurtful clarity.

Our memory, suddenly sharpened,

examines,

gnaws on kind words

unsaid,

promised walks

never taken.

Great souls die and

our reality, bound to

them, takes leave of us.

Our souls,

dependent upon their

nurture,

now shrink, wizened.

Our minds, formed

and informed by their

radiance, fall away.

We are not so much maddened

as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of

dark, cold

caves.

And when great souls die,

after a period peace blooms,

slowly and always

irregularly. Spaces fill

with a kind of

soothing electric vibration.

Our senses, restored, never

to be the same, whisper to us.

They existed. They existed.

We can be. Be and be

better. For they existed.

She was the first person Barb and I met when we came to Gilcreast Farms Condo Assoc. in 2002.  Always greeted you with graciousness and a friendly smile.  After her husband Fred passed on, she would call me if she needed help with something.  Many times she would recount the ‘less than good’ experience she had with the installation of a Water Purification System she had installed in the basement of her condo, (the high cost of it and that it was ‘overkill’ for what she needed), then utter what sounded like a swear word in German.  Another story was about how, as a child, she had to enter a bomb  shelter while her home town was being bombed. She was indeed a interesting person.

RIP Rose…