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My Mom - Eulogy
I know mom, Shirley, didn’t want to leave just yet. She still had twenty projects left incomplete, and her garden has a lot of weeding and planting to finish. She just assembled her glass greenhouse, her early birthday present to herself – she had told me, and I know she was itching to fill it with plants of all sorts. My mother had an understanding with her garden and it flourished under her nurturing spirit.
Mom had an extensive variety of interests ranging from sports: watching baseball & girls basketball, participating in field hockey, golfing, and skiing-cross country. She was an admirer of the arts: the Seattle symphony, plays, museums, and studying history. She was open minded, and she always enjoyed learning new things. She was starting to obtain a good grasp at running a computer.
Mom freely gave her attention and energy to the communities she lived in. Lately she was very active with Michael’s, her grandson, Boy Scout troop. She was on the Boy Scout committee, and she was in charge of a few of the badges.
For rest and relaxation, Shirley enjoyed gardening, watching television, some of her favorite shows being: The Practice, Monk, and Judging Amy, crossword puzzles, playing games with her family, and reading.
Michael, old soul that he is, decided one day while we were jogging that mom was a CEO or President of a large company in a previous life. Mom totally agreed with this concept, because Shirley loved to come up with ideas and solutions to problems, at least twenty new ideas per hour I estimate, and she would like others to execute them.
I also think, after having lived with her for the past ten years, that Shirley’s true passion was building. Whether it was remodeling a room, building a deck, remodeling a house, building an addition, or assembling her greenhouse, she seemed the most focused and actually finished these projects instead of leaving them incomplete.
As for her occupation, Physical Therapy, she enjoyed immensely all of her patients and she always gave a 110% of herself to their needs.
Such as, working late to make foot molds, or trying to read about
and take seminars on new techniques, etc.
I know Shirley loved her family dearly, and she had a truly forgiving spirit – even though she never forgot. She claims she was an Italian Jew, but I don’t know? Where’s our genealogy? She truly had a competitive and creative spirit - driven to the end.
Shirley will be greatly missed.
I will miss her as my wind beneath my wings.
Forever Inward (Editor's choiceaward 2002)
Long and tedious,
I trample through my mind.
Throwing out all the smelly garbage that I can find.
An epitaph occurs as I stop and stare,
"How can all these conflicting thoughts exist in here?"
A gin and tonic or two would clear up this confusion
in my zoo like delusion.
Searching and searching to remove a seed of negativity
is the true purpose of this frustrating journey.
I kneel on my knees and start to cry,
"How did everything go so awry?"
A rubic cube is less difficult to solve,
and I'm tired of it all.
The ghost of my dead father passes me bye,
while he is looking at me without much pride.
I clearly remember how I ruined my life,
and was too long an adulteress wife.
Techno Sky
Flying through a magical night,
destiny tries to rule.
Pyramids metamorphosis to new technology.
Bats of metal sweep down low.
Arrows bend for pleasure,
while spears punish with a throw.
Angry trees fight with each other,
rumbling a tune all of their own.
Banished egos cry deeply of
what they thought once was theirs.
Crown my world of chaos,
try and write a different song.
Oh my, oh my, they have set sturdy traps
hidden in disguises of anguished dogs and such.
I shall live underground for a while,
still wanting of safe touch.
Poetic Conclusions (published 2002)
Sourdough bread rises flat.
Left too late to expectorate.
Tiger patterns envelope.
White down caresses.
Which mood cleans up the messes?
Belittled,
degraded, rotten to the core.
Surfing through letters,
I find two or three sensual and poetic
rendering he and me.
Currently a solitary box vacant of energy,
needing to be filled with petals of peonies.
Testing relationships of all kinds,
only motherhood is divine.
Rickety,
ruthless,
ranting and disturbed.
Stifling anger when creativity is not heard.
All works ©2002-2003 Laurie Miller
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