So here it is the 22nd of December. I am on day what?
16. So a week behind. But I am not not
giving up yet.
Today is Jay Kopp’s Bday.
He would be 39 if he had not ended his life last December. I know many
of his friends gathered a few weeks back on the anniversary of that day to
honor and remember him. I remember Jay
all the time, but I could not bring myself to celebrate that day.
This brings us here.
Around Thanksgiving my friend Jennifer Owen Hill shared this saying on
FB about three deaths, and the final death is when a person’s name is spoken
for the last time. I think about that.
Often.
When I decorated for the party last year, I put out ‘reserved’
cards for those that I had lost in the months leading up the party as a way to
honor them and remember them and to say that even without their physical presence,
I have not forgotten them.
This year’s decorations included picture frames. Initially I had planned to put pictures of
the many guests and loved ones who once attended our party, (or intended to)
and are no longer with us. As I ran out
of time I came up with this alternative.
I actually liked it better than I had planned.
It hurts that there are so many people who we loved and who
are gone. It hurts that unfortunately the
list can only get longer the longer we have the party.
It hurts, but I do not want to be the one who says these names for the
last time, so I am saying them and I plan to continue saying them.
Jane Rogers Meeks
Jay Kopp
Chris Young
Jan Kinkade
Mike Sutton
Stephanie Dunaway Forrest
Amanda Rohn
Ann Hankins
Geraldine Black
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