Gone from My Sight

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and the sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear the load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says: "There she is gone!" There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout:

"Here she comes!"

And that is dying. . . 

In memory of Bernice Audrey Vanden Berg and Ed Evans. Attributed to Henry Van Dyke.

Happy Birthday Uncle Frank

 From your sister, who loved you so very much:

Bernice Audrey Van Halsema Vanden Berg

Susie and I left Rhode Island in 2015 and moved to Grand Rapids because we could and because we wanted to help her mom remain as independent as possible and less dependent as possible on strangers. In the intervening nine years we've met some truly wonderful folk and had some grand experiences all the while spending time with one of the nicest people I have ever known.

It's really as simple as that. Or maybe it's not.

For those who knew her I can't really add anything more than what you already learned from your own experience. 

And for those who didn't know her, well you missed out knowing one fine human being.

To learn more you can't do better than her obituary. 

For a slide show of images from her life:

Her graveside service from 20 November 2024, performed by Laurie Ten Have-Chapman at Woodlawn Cemetery, close to the 17th green of Indian Trails Golf Course:

Oh, and the man holding the umbrella for Laurie in David Durston of Zaagman Funeral Home.

Photos of the interment courtesy of Dick Lucas Van Halsema:

Visit Oslo, too

It really does look like this:

 

By all means, go.