1095 days

I often wonder when grief ends but realize that it will always be with me . . . I am forever changed because of Sean's death but also changed because Sean lived and we loved each other dearly. Some of you know that I am a huge fan of magazines. I get way too many in my mailbox but one of my favorites is Real Simple. I just love their ratings of products and simple solutions that make me go, why didn't I think of that? This month they have article on remembering a lost love one (page 291). It was written by Gail Blanke on the death of her brother who was in the Navy and died years ago.

The paragraph that stood out to me is from the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder and is the last paragraph of the book. "We ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning."

I got the poem below on November 13, 2005 . . . I read it on July 4, 2007. I hardly ever read emails that come around November 13. I just save them to a folder and read them on a day that I need a pick me up. I really appreciate the emails during such a difficult day. I do read them eventually . . . thanks for always thinking of us and especially remembering Sean.

The Price of Love

Grief never ends,
But it changes.
It's a passage,
Not a place to stay.

The sense of loss
Must give away,
If we're to value
The life that was lived.

Grief is not weakness,
Nor lack of faith,
It's the price of love.