RIP

Elderly parishioner Joyce, 89, passed away last week leaving empty pew and a hole that only the very elderly and lived-in of us can fill. In that church for half of the century since its building. A sweet seller in the shop opposite the school, and sweetened to the core by it. The kids and I had visited her lately after church, and even the small and bouncy Eryk was somehow stilled and conjured by the spell of her great age and kindness. He kept on asking to make repeat visits. No more. Although I can't say I knew her well, I will be at the funeral of this person who lived a happy life, with my own happy feeling - sometimes the dutiful respect for an elder is in itself a really satisfying and fulfilling emotion. Traditional societies know this; for modern individualists hooked on personal affinities, closeness and connections it's a more suspect kind of feeling