Hello, HELLO!

“Don’t be indoors in a sad and quiet church,” you said.

So we gathered on a cool and breezy evening in May,

outside the church, on the lawn,

in the center of the Town you loved.

“Don’t cry,” you said.

But we did cry. However, there were

tears and laughter in equal measure

because we all    brought   bells.

Huge brass bells, tiny silver jingle bells, cow bells, even YAK bells,

delicate crystal Christmas bells, shop-keepers’ bells, and your

grandmother’s one-room-schoolhouse “Come to class!” bell.

Pastor Sara let loose the old church bells with a joyous peal,

our friends and neighbors rang like crazy, and a couple of kids

danced and whooped in time. And because we live in the Town

we do, there were Tibetan gongs, African rattles, and a good

old-fashioned bang-on-the-pot-lid with a spoon!

We cried and laughed into the sky:

Hello! HELLO!

To all of those we’ve loved and lost.

Know that you live on in our hearts.

We MISS YOU and we LOVE YOU still.

Hello! HELLO!!

Because it is just too,

     too hard

to say

goodbye.

(A memorial for Christopher Blair)