Waiting For Bill To Die

4/24/08 7:10 pm

One more good person is sitting on the Great Lotus Blossom.
We are no longer waiting for Bill to die.

 

Paul and T - My heart goes out to you. You have such a wonderful way with words........makes a sad occasion bearable.

 

Bill may be gone, but he was a lucky man to have had a friend such as you. You and Tori are truly fine people. So sorry for your loss.

 

Peace be with you Paul, Tori, and all those that Bill left behind.

 

Your words make me feel close to Bill even though I never met him. My heart is sad.
May Joni, Tori, and you have peace. May we all be so fortunate to have such love around us as Bill did.

 

Today is the first day that Bill will never see.
Oh what a lovely day it is, so full of life and promise.
Blossoms fall from trees like pink snow.
Birds flit this way and that, somehow knowing where they are going.
Today is like any other day,
but not.

 

What a lovely tribute to a very gentle man. In your writings you have shown the gentle man that you are yourself Paul. You are someone that I would like to know as you make the world a better place. thank you.

 

i'm wishing and praying for amazing grace for all those around you and your beloved bill's family

 

.

 

I took an hour off work and gave the five poems to Joni. She cried, gave me a kiss and told me she "awoke this morning rested and happy". I told her that grieving has many facets, that there is no one way to grieve, that it can last forever.


Amen.

 

GF ~

May you, Mrs. GF, Joni and other friends/family continue to find peace now that Bill is gone from this life. :-* :-* :-*

What a beautifully poetic way to sum up what could have been a somber event. Thank you for sharing it with all of us.

Love to you all!
Stacey
xxxxxx

 

awaiting another poem dear friend
but only at your own pace and time

(i still carry the one you gave me in my purse)

 

One might think that the Rec Center was an odd place for a funeral.
What other building in town was big enough to hold the gathering of
mourners and celebrants?
We took our turns sharing our thoughts and feelings, speaking into a
cordless microphone.
It gave us something to hold onto, to squeeze until the plastic might break
while we laughed and cried.
I am not at the cemetery with other mourners
I will visit another day when I have plenty of time just to sit alone and muse and
be thankful I knew the man forever at rest in the beautiful pine box there in the ground.
Life is tenuous and fleeting.
I am old enough to value every moment, every event.
My immortality died many funerals ago.
Bill told us that dying was weird and then he smiled.
I guess I shall have to wait and see if I agree.
Goodbye old man.
Goodbye second father to my wife.
Goodby good friend.
Goodby fine husband.
Bill
Goodby

 

.

 

What a fine man to have so many sit and wait with him.
Thank you Paul for reminding us how life is about the laughing and the crying.

Lee

 

thank you everyone for your reading all of this, for your prayers and good wishes and for your comments. It has helped me and Tori and Joni.

 

i not only got tears but the good goosebumps when I read this last poem...

'my mortality died many funerals ago' - such a powerful and truthfully raw sentence -

i believe in sorrow we find some truth and the guts to write them; after having suffering much within our own and others sorrow we find a release or strength to write true unbriddled (sp) emotions...

bravo dear friend...in time this should be published

 

seems odd - Bill has been dead five months. I just mailed this poem to my sisters, one of whom is my mother's caretaker. Our mother is dying, very close to the end. I have written something I expecdt to read at the funeral. But I wanted something for now. The oddness is that Waiting For Bill To Die is just what I needed. I don't know the answer why this has worked for me, but I a glad it did. I will share what I wrote for Mom down the road.
Take deep breaths everyone, our journey continues, yours and mine.

Paul

 

:-* :-* :-*

 

Only just now sharing in the poetry of your life and loss. A dear friend of mine is losing a loved one at this time. We talked. And decided that it is in fact, a gift to have the time to know, and plan, and say goodbye. I gathered from your poems about Bill that this was a blessing for you. Praps it will be one as you say goodbye to your mother as well. It may not lessen the grief - only the shock. And provide some opportunity for you to find peace. In this case, through your prose.

You are brave and wonderful for sharing your pain, your joy and your love...thanks.