Changing of the Guard

 I will always remember that moment, the changing of the guard. The moment when our future was no longer in the care of the previous generation, but instead, a role reversal. Their future is now in ours. Nobody wants to bury a loved one, not ever; but when it becomes necessary, how much easier to say goodbye to such a woman, with such a lasting, living, legacy, as our Grandma T.  I was as prepared as anyone can be for that day of farewell and tearful reminiscing, but I feel woefully unprepared for the days to come. I am not done growing up yet. But, as Colleen so eloquently stated, life goes relentlessly on.

Leaving the chapel to follow Grandma's casket was at first somber. I was inexplicably in the front of her children, just a granddaughter, nearly in the lead of a tremendous parade of family and friends. Upon realization of this, my mood changed from mere reflection to near panic with a strong compulsion to turn back and allow her dear daughters, my heroes and mentors, to pass me by. Instead, I found myself facing the crumpling form of my aunt in a moment of vulnerable despair. I was able to hold her up in a desperate hug as her sisters surrounded us and my sisters joined to help bear the burden of grief.

Just for less than a mortal minute, before the parade moved relentlessly on, eternity sounded the call for the changing of the guard. With the loss of their mother, the link to our past, comes the time for us to step up and care for their future. Perhaps the moment was more poignant because, all together in my view at once, I noticed for the first time in my life, they too are five sisters.

http://www.issaquahpress.com/2010/11/23/ada-luetta-scott-thurgood/#more-37655