Life and Death and our Hands and Feet

I have been absent from my blog lately, why? Because my friend Cheryl passed away Saturday afternoon after being in a coma for two days and I have been preoccupied thinking alot about life and death and hands and feet. When she took her last breath all three of her children were there, and she was surrounded by six loving friends. We played Stevie Ray Vaughn her favorite artist, minutes before she passed on she opened her eyes and looked around, Frannie pictured her dancing down the path towards the light with Stevie Ray Vaughn and I'll bet she was right.

We sat with her all day keeping a light hearted vigil by her bed side massaging her hands and feet. At a certain point in the day when her two girls had gone to the airport to pick up her son Jonny, we women friends were alone with her and the five of us got out the sage and rubbed it on her feet. We were having too good of a time and the nurse came in looking at us suspiciously and said "what are you doing?" I said rubbing sage on her feet, another said; to make her path easier and to let her know it's Ok when she is ready to walk down the path. The nurse looked stricken and backed out of the room, too funny. Fran took a picture of her feet to paint them, in the photograph they looked like they were flying so free and etherial. What a powerful painting that will be!At her wake today it was as she would have wanted it to be lots and lots of people having a good time and there was enough food to feed the multitudes. Because Cheryll was a pack rat there were boots that had been turned into flower pots for people to take home. Something she would do, and there was the sand she saved and the shells, beads, broken jewelery, and bottles, we made our beach bottles with memories of a good, good friend. Her obituary said: The most memorable thing about our mother was her unique sense of humor and her creative fashion sense. She had an open mind and a nonjudgemental attitude. She was always there to listen and lend a helping hand and didn't know a stranger. She truly enjoyed the simpler things in life: gardening, collecting rocks, berry picking, bird watching, Charlie brown Christmas Trees, long walks and spending time with her family......

I will add she was the coolest that ever lived.