Marigolds for a Friend

Marigolds for a Friend

Today I have to attend the funeral of a young person that Karen and I knew. At 27 Jason is gone long before his time. I decided to post this picture of Marigolds as one of the Mexican people I work with was explaining that Marigolds are used during the "Dia de los Muertos" (Day of the Dead) to help guide the souls of the departed back to enjoy the pleasures they enjoyed in life. With Jay it would have been friends, family and his two-year old twin daughters. I am not sure if I got the translation and meaning correct here but I sure hope so. The Day of the Dead is celebrated October 31st through November 2nd and is not as depressing a time as it sounds. It is quite the opposite, a time for happiness, family and life. I am going to try and use this to help build a little bridge to my trying to understand senseless tragedy. Not that I think I will ever be able to completely understand I will try and make peace with the situation and try and move on from there. Many people have been affected by this, much worse than Karen and I, and I hope I can help them carry on. His young beautiful wife who I am close to, his mother a genuine, nice person, his young brother just to name a few.

So here is my humble offering to Jay and his family, a large patch of Marigolds to help guide this spirit back so they can enjoy a little more time with his warm, friendly and caring personality.

“Death is nothing at all, I have only slipped away into the next room, I am I and you are you; Whatever we were to each other, That we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name, Speak to me in the easy way which you always used, Put no difference in your tone,
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we shared together.
Let my name ever be the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant,
It is the same as it ever was, there is unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner. All is well.”
Henry Scott Holland, Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral