Dear gunug,
Please accept my sympathy for your loss, which has followed so closely on the heels of my own.
That's how people get "REAL" immortality. People live on through the memories that their friends/loved ones/families remember and pass on to the next generation
Sandy
In the chapel service for my father, my brother, sister, mother and I spoke about my father and what he meant to us. We were all both eloquent (according to others' assessment) and incoherent and somehow the message got through. Even now, only a few days later, I am finding the memories of my father to be more comforting than painful. The pain is ubiquitous but the memories make it seem like he will remain here, protecting us, guiding us, and just plain keeping us company.
I requested several of my father's personal items, which my mother gladly gave to me. So I have his bathrobe and dressing gown (items which I really needed!) and also his watch and glass paperweight. I am an Eisner, and we have never been particularly materialistic people. I like to think that we hold most dear those material things which have
real value, meaning emotional significance. But first and most of all, we value each other.
At the end of a person's life, you miss them terribly and wonder, much as a child does, where can they possibly be? That answer is not knowable, but something remains of them in the precious objects they once possessed, and in remembrance of them. My mother, a very strong person, believes that these morsels will sustain us in the years to come.
When I was a jeweler, I used to feel that any handcrafted piece bore not just the physical, but the spiritual or psychic "imprint" of its maker. At this point, holding my father's paperweight in my hand, I want this to be true more than I ever have.
Best,
Francine
