I attended the memorial service for Peggy on Thursday April 17, 2014. It was a packed house at the chapel of the residential care facility where she spent her last days. Everything was pretty low key just like she was as I remember ... I was happy to see members of the old "blended family" and met some of the other members as well. Several photographs and a collage were set out for us to look at and those too brought back memories.

The photograph on the overhead was exactly as I remember her; back in a happier day for her personally I know. She sustained brain injury as the result of an aneurysm which according to accounts was not fully closed and bled a second time.

The resulting quality of life quickly became nil with her losing most of her sight, elements of her memory, and existing in a prolonged state of profound infirmity and sorrow as a result.

We were pretty early and I listened to the music playing on a loop during the interim. It was Sailing by Rod Stewart and those lyrics are very sad when you place them in the context of Peggy's life and that sharp focus of hindsight; projecting imagery which has left me very introspective of that human misery which sometimes happens as the result of our human frailties ... and I left the service with the realization of just how painful the last years of her life were for her at so many levels — and equally for her children as well as those significant others closest to her.

No one deserves the ending she suffered marked by constant tears and grief. The only uplifting thing about the service is that fact that she is no longer suffering and is at peace. It was a very sad day when all was said and done as I remember those various accounts by others who visited her after the unsuccessful cerebrovascular surgery. Her costs in personal misery were unbearable with that which she remembered of her past life contrasting with what she knew in her last four years.

Rest in peace.

The 23^rd Psalm

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
For his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:
For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me
In the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil;
My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

King James Version