In the title of this posting, I took a little liberty with Emily Dickinson's famous poetry, "how do I love thee...." I've been struck recently about deep deep things like life and death and legacy, about an individual's story and how each of us leaves a mark on this world. My brother, Mark's wife, Alice, died this month. She was only 3 months younger than me and she and Mark were married in 1966. Over those years, we may have only seen Alice about ten times. Mark was in the Air Force and they moved around a lot the first five years of their marriage and then they settled in Bellevue, Ne., about 600 miles from here. I do regret that throughout those years I never really got to know Alice. Neither of us were conscientious about writing and her five children and our three children and then her eight grandchildren and our six grandchildren kept the days and months passing by without connection. So, it was beautiful to see on Facebook, testimonials and reflections from her children of just what a loving and compassionate being that Alice was. At her funeral Mass, her nephew spoke a bit of her story and shone more light on her goodness and uniqueness. All five of her children are warm and welcoming, kind and loving and in getting to know them and their families, we get to learn more about Alice. May she rest in peace. P.S. When we came home from the funeral trip to Bellevue, the pictured black bunny seemed to have taken up residence in our yard. Since Alice had dark black hair, we named the bunny, Alice.
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