a double first cousin

Lelia Ann Dickinson Smith

the last of my wife's double first cousins!

we can enshrine in our hearts the brother, the sister, the parent,

sometimes, though, a few of us can have a connection

in which the genes and life experience can bind us

in a love for one whose mother was sister to our mother,

whose father was brother to our father,

such was the light upon the world for my wife,

the double first cousin named Lelia Ann Dickinson Smith,

when we would be blessed with time with her,

her smile, her piercing intellect,

the robustness of her soul,

her gift with the piano,

made our moments together shine with a light

that was so right that it hurt,

we savored our time with her children,

with her son Gavin whose brilliance of intellect

honors his mother and father,

and whose perseverance during trying times

must have inspired both his wife and parents,

his soul full of love and rightness,

with her daughter Katherine, 

whose joy in life as a toddler enchanted us,

as did our visit to her world in Oahu,

the beauty outside parallel to the beauty 

inside the people of the family,

her daughters as full of light as Lelia Ann was:

Lelia, whose wonderful children 

helped draw Lelia Ann back to the mainland,

Olivia, full of the wisdom and joy of those islands,

Marley, full of her self and the joy of being,

I only knew this family through occasional interactions,

but I know my wife,

and I know that Lelia Ann and her family

are close to Joan in ways and depths

I can imagine but not know in my heart,

just hours ago Lelia Ann breathed her last

and left our moments together for the last time,

I celebrate her life as a gift to the world

we can honor but never deserve.

by Henry H. Walker

September 15, ‘26