Recovering from the death of my 17 year old daughter is extremely difficult. There are many times that I feel alienated and alone. I feel that in society, no one wants to truly know how I am and how much pain I am in. Because my husband is also suffering, I feel at times that I can't go to him. My daughter was literally my second half...we looked alike, had similar tastes in music, food and movies. So many things I could share with her, I can't share with anyone else.

Flood

Forty days and nights
Have turned into an eternity
The sorrow flows continuously
Running down my cheeks
Into my heart
My chest swells
Explosion is eminent
The sorrow moves up
Into my throat
I can’t swallow
Much less speak
I will remain silent
As I drown in this flood.

sjj 7/27/2006

Dragonfly's Introduction

"In the bottom of an old pond lived some grubs who could not understand why none of their group ever came back after crawling up the lily stems to the top of the water. They promised each other that the next one who was called to make the upward climb would return and tell what had happened to him. Soon one of them felt an urgent impulse to seek the surface; he rested himself on the top of a lily pad and went through a glorious transformation which made him a dragonfly with beautiful wings. In vain he tried to keep his promise. Flying back and forth over the pond, he peered down at his friends below. Then he realized that even if they could see him they would not recognize such a radiant creature as one of their number.

The fact that we cannot see our friends or communicate with them after the transformation which we call death is no proof that they cease to exist."

by Walter Dudley CavertRemember Now© 1944, 1971