In these beautiful end-of-Summer days, it is impossible not to remember back one year, when the new melanoma symptoms revealed themselves. Mara began an awful and relatively short last battle.
Without setting out to do this consciously, I am revisting -on home leave- many of the places where I took Mara. Right now I'm back with my cousins Tim and Judith whose daughters, Susannah and Mary Louisa, Mara loved. They shared much laughter. Eleven months ago we took a vacation from her radiation treatment here, our last vacation together.
Mara and I had had happy times on Mount Desert Island, including the cottage in Manset right on the water.
On the way to Aunt Sue's house there is a bridge over a creek, with Mount Bernard in the background. Everyone stops to snap a picture there.
Then I drove to Vermont, to a place called Blueberry Hill, with a lovely farm that dates from about 1813. It is now an inn where Mara and I stayed at the height of the fiery Fall foliage season in 2006. I went back to the same lake whose cool, sunlit surroundings seemed ablaze when I was there with Mara. It is different in the green warmth of summer, though the bottom of the lake is reddish.
There are white rocks of marble. I saw one bright red leaf of the type that Mara and I had collected by the dozens.
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4 comments:
I think of Mara often, but she has been on my mind even more these past several weeks. I remember receiving the news, via email from Elise, of Mara's emergency return to New York just as I was dropping my daughter Hayley off at her first day of kindergarten. I felt as though the wind had been knocked out of me. This year, as I walked with Hayley to her first day of first grade, I experienced that same awful feeling as I recalled the sequence of events that followed that initial email.
About a month ago, I came into Hayley's room and found her looking at a collage of pictures she has, one of which is of Mara holding her against the dark green wall with the masks in her D.C. apartment. Hayley said to me, You know, I really miss Mara. She was like a mother to me.
The amazing thing about that statement is that Hayley only had a chance to be with Mara a handful of times - and yet, Mara obviously made quite an impression on her, just as she did on everyone else! She is so missed.
I hope this note finds you well, David. Thank you for continuing to post pictures and memories about Mara.
Warmly,
Eden
I check this site often to see pictures of your life and memories with Mara, David. I listen to a CD of music that reminds me of her --it is peaceful, calm folk music. I don't even know if she would have liked it, but I was listening to it a lot last fall, as well as the night I got the news that she had passed. The female singer's voice and lyrics were strong, independent and calm....I guess these are features of Mara that I admired.
I can't thank you enough for sharing these pictures and the memories, David. You are such a special person, David.
Warmly,
Karen S.
imagine
Thanks for sharing these beautiful pictures with us, dear cousin.
We too are thinking of Mara a lot.
Much love to all, Ems
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