I was just reading about how people who died this past year will be remembered. Some were 90, one was 22. Some were too few years older than me. Some died of accidents. One was a shooting. Some were strange diseases. Some were common ailments that take their toll. We are all going along with our foot on the accelerator until we get that call someone has died. I got that call in the middle of this beautiful morning.
On Tuesday night my cousin Barbara Ann took her last breaths in her sleep. We were supposed to see each other next week in Pittsburgh as we have been doing the past years at the holidays. The last email I got was asking about sharing more music. She actually listened to the playlists I shared! Barbara Ann had a complicated life. Complicated with all kinds of medical stuff I never understood - but driven by an inner joy that was always there. She was always sweet and happy to see us and almost childlike in her sense of wonder.
I just looked at the pictures on Barbara Ann’s Facebook page. They are almost all fireworks exploding. At the bottom there is one picture of Barbara Ann taken at what looks like a graduation - she had many of them from several colleges (she was one of the best educated people ever!). In that picture, which it says is from a roll of film that was recently developed decades later - she looks exactly like she always did….but there is this timeless beauty in her face. It will be that memory I keep alive.
I am listening to this song I am sure I shared with Barbara Ann on one of the those playlists she devoured - Bob Schneider’s, “The World Exploded into Love". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8Pw3ohhknk