In Memoriam--A Paragraph a Day

I love how some people affect us over the course of years, how they contribute to our lives in positive ways and help to make us feel better and stronger as we face the challenges that life brings to us.  They can contribute to our lives for very long periods of time, and then one day we find that they're here no longer.  One person who gave such strength to me was Roswitha, a woman in Germany who was more of a mother to me than my biological mother, who encouraged me and shared ideas with me and helped me out in many, many ways.  When I got married in New Hampshire, Roswitha flew over from Germany to be there.  My own parents, in Colorado, didn't come.  Neither did my brother or sister.  That's just the kind of family I come from.  It was a Godsend to me to meet someone who took over the role of mother, even though I lived in Germany for only three years.  We still talked on the phone a lot and exchanged letters (remember those?) until she passed on a couple of weeks ago.  I'm sad about it, but more relieved--she was suffering a great deal and was in a lot of pain.  I know what people mean when they talk of us being immortal, because Roswitha still lives on in my memory, just as strongly as she was in my memory when she was still alive.  And I'm glad of that.  I would have loved to have seen her one more time before she passed, but that wasn't to be.  In a way that's a good thing, for my last memories of her won't be of her being bed-ridden; rather, I think of her as healthy and vital.  I really am going to miss her, of course, but I'm very thankful for the memories that she left me with.  She was a wonderful woman who did everything she could to help people whose lives she touched, and I'm very, very glad that her life touched mine.