It’s Been Another Year

I’ve been meaning to publish a blog post, and have about a dozen started, but it hasn’t been the right time for me to publish any of them yet. I still don’t have anything good to share this week, which started with the second anniversary of her passing, but I wanted to at least post something. I’ll do my best.

It’s been my goal to start writing upbeat posts about Karen, but those stories aren’t coming along for me right now. They are half finished, or don’t seem to come together as well as I’d like. It’s not that I can’t think back fondly on her, or feel joy in memories of her. I can now. But it’s still been a challenge to tell the stories in a way that delivers the message I want to tell.

Karen has been an important part of many people’s lives, and continues to be so even now. It’s hard to describe to people who didn’t know Karen what I mean when I say things like that.

I’m not sure people know what it means to affect the world around them in such a manner. Karen did so up until her very end. She and I weren’t religious, but when her end came near I reached out to the hospice pastor, because I knew it would comfort family members to have a religious ceremony. When the pastor and I met, we spoke about Karen and who she was. I told him my thoughts, but didn’t leave it at that. I told him very seriously that I was pretty sure that everybody he met under these circumstances told him all kinds of bull shit, only wanting to say good things, but that this wouldn’t be sufficient, because it didn’t serve Karen justice. I told him that Karen was special.

I think he was a bit surprised at this (the bull shit part), and even more surprised when I then gave him a packet of letters. Many people knew Karen, but some of us were fortunate to be able to spend time with her in the years preceding her passing. I invited the people at our office to write a letter to the pastor, telling him who Karen was to them personally, if they wished. The pastor told me that he’d never seen anything like it. He was so moved by the letters that he spoke in detail about it at the funeral, and I’ve been told that it affected him for some time after.

The two year anniversary of Karen’s passing was Monday and a variety of people have reached out over the last week or so, telling me of the ways she is still part of their lives. Some send pictures of flowers, some plant flowers (including in the bed attached to my mailbox-picture below), and others tell me of things they experience that make them think of her. She touched a lot of people in her time among us.

2 thoughts on “It’s Been Another Year”

  1. Glad to seee the flowers were still there when you got home, Charlie. I thought with the tornado warnings they would all be knocked down. A woodpecker (?) had perched on the flower box as I was leaving; as if it was the “spirit” of Karen admiring my offering. As always, thanks for sharing. Hope we can do it in person, soon.

  2. I have Karen’s smiling face on my bike handles and think of her daily on my rides. Sending love your way. And I agree with you Karen is special and those of us who got to know her were the lucky ones. ?

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