I see Ann in their eyes

Ann Continues On

you can list fact after fact about a person’s life,

and each is a piece of the whole of a person,

yet, if you add up all the pieces, you don’t get the whole,

we come to consciousness, alone,

at the best in a web with parents

for whom we are the center, at least for awhile,

what really makes us who we are is what we give,

and what we receive, with others,

others who live in us as we honor them

with what we cook,

with the stories we remember,

with the possibilities they awoke in us,

if we can know the spirit within our own self,

we can know the spirit within those we touch,

we live life on the surface of the great beyond,

and, when we drop below,

the ripples of our life can help others rise up

as long as they can still feel us,

mysteries may await us after we die,

it is sure we can still live in the qualities

of how our love and truth are remembered,

I look into the eyes of those whom Ann has touched,

and she looks back at me,

in her strong will and overflowing heart,

in the artist and poet in her sensibilities,

Ann had greatness within her,

an inertia that held to itself and its way,

no blowing in ephemeral winds this way and that,

rather a firmness to hold to a value, to a connection,

particularly a connection with her own and with others’ children,

once she would move forward, she would continue on,

in the strength and love and will of her daughter, Ann continues on,

in the strength and love and will of her students, Ann continues on,

in the twinkle in the eyes of her grandchildren, Ann continues on,

Ann endures and lifts us up to be better,

to become who she saw us to be,

to follow who she called us to be,

as she followed who God called her to be.

by Henry H. Walker

July 14, '14