When someone passes away, those left behind are faced with two obstacles in their path — first, the loss itself, and then second and perhaps more difficult, letting go and moving on.
It’s been a week since my friend and co-worker Ros left us. Since that day I’ve kept the entry about her stuck to the top on this blog, and her picture across the banner.
Tonight is the rosary, tomorrow is the funeral. Then comes the decision on when to let go, when to let the entry on Ros unstick itself and settle into place in the chronological timeline here; sort of an analogy to the way that Sunday stuck in all our personal timelines and keeps repeating itself like time has stopped. It’s still that Sunday for many people, and it will be hard to put that day into the past and look at today instead, to look at the future that is coming and not live solely on June 29, 2008.
I still think of Thomas after that sad August 6th 14 years ago, commemorated in little ways everyday, like threads in the tapestry of my life. It’s obvious to me that it is sometimes not possible to leave a date behind forever.