(no subject)

[lady_schrapnell]

Strong sinew and soft flesh
Are foliage round the shaft
Before the arrowsmith
Has stripped it, and I pray
That I, all foliage gone,
May shoot into my joy.

From the play "The Herne's Egg", by W.B. Yeats

My father died in 1966, but for a variety of reasons, my mother didn't get the proper headstone she wanted on his grave for many years.  The process of choosing the text to be carved on it and the design took a lot of time and much consultation - with the stonemason, me, Ruth, other family and assorted interested parties.  We were all very happy with text (the above extract) and design at the end - a lovely set of stones of different height - and when it was up, my mother and I went out to Dean's Grange cemetery to see it in place.  And it looked wonderful - but you couldn't read the text without climbing onto the curb and leaning way over to see behind the front stone.  The worst of the upset over, my mother got onto the stonemason and managed to explain that we wanted the text to be visible - my father was a writer, after all and writers aren't generally known for their desire to keep words hidden away where nobody can read them.  Ruth's head was down in her hands many's the time over that bit of - er, strange 'thinking', and once it was fixed and right, we often laughed about the whole thing.

When Ruth realised she was dying within a matter of days, rather than months, she asked for that piece to be read at her funeral.  She died early this morning, and was apparently not only peaceful, but - though somewhat incoherent - smiling and even laughing in her last few hours.  I hope and trust she has shot into her joy.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am so sorry the world has lost this lovely woman.

*Hugs*

[wyvernfriend.livejournal.com]

*hugs* my condolences.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

I'm very sorry. Every death makes a hole in the universe, but even more when it's someone you love.

[(Anonymous)]

I am sorry to hear it, so sorry. That piece of poem is beautiful.

[generalblossom.livejournal.com]

Me again, as usual anonymous, sorry for the anonymousness, my sympathy again.

[emmaco.livejournal.com]

The quote is lovely. Again, I'm sorry about Ruth and am thinking about you and the girls.

[(Anonymous)]

Just to say hello - I was the reader at the funeral, and I found this when I Googled a line from it so that I could send the piece to a friend.

It was a beautiful ceremony, and it snowed as we left the cathedral :)

Nora