Dear Lucy, Of Memories We Treasure Now...

There is something heart-wrenchingly healingas I compose each Dear Lucy poem/post!Thank-you, Lord This quote (author unknown), rings so true 🙏💓 When someone you love becomes a memorythe memory (and memories) become a treasure... Tomorrow it will be 11 months since someone I took far too for granted(Dear Lucy,  the middle sister of the five Martin girls) became a memory to treasure...and oh, what a bitterly-sweetest treasure! Below is a group of friends that triedto get together for at least a few of our birthdaysevery year..(one friend absent from these shots)These tea-parties have become cherished memories to treasure! (Lucy, third from the left) Above photo Oct. 2023, a birthday tea at the café where Lucy served us withhonour and delight! Lucy LOVED serving her friends and family either in her home or at various restaurants and caféswhere she worked throughout her life! Below Mar. 27 2024 (Lucy's last birthday)my mom, sister and I surprised her at workand came for lunch This memory plus many more while sitting at her kitchen table,inspired the first four lines of this month's poem. Your brisk, bouncy, efficient strideYour happiness when serving usYour table set with loving prideYour pleasure in the detail-fuss... Your brisk, bouncy, efficient strideYour happiness when serving usYour table set with loving prideYour pleasure in the detail-fussYour smile, your spontaneityYour tardy tune-in with 'what?! who?!'Your love of home and familyAnd interest in others too Your faith, that deepened joy and griefYour prayers for fellow hopes and hurtsYour delight in each season's briefBeauty-fest. Your fresh-baked dessertsYour 'artist's eye' for painting thingsYour energy to get it doneYour sentimental renderingsOr humorous, quick-witted pun Your love of books, of poetryOf anything worthy to readOf planting a garden to seeThe miracle in every seedYour kindred-spirit-common-groundWith we who  love the loss of wordsWhen truth's epiphanies confoundThe tongue, but leave hearts and souls stirred Your boundless appetite for lifeWhile weathering its 'yes' and 'nope'From a fountain of mercy, rifeWith opportunity and hopeYour encouraging wisdom bornFrom your own share of bitter blowsYour willingness to brave love's thorn To reap the beauty of its rose Your one-and-only-you, oh howWe miss your precious presence hereWhere memories we treasure now Are love's beautiful keepsakes, dearReminding us, through smiles and tearsTo thank God for the blessing ofBearing the part sorrow reveres Because we were part of your love By your sister Janet onbehalf of so many'treasure-embracers' B-day celebration at D's house(June 2021) Another B-day celebration...this one at my house (Sept.2022) ...and another below at 'J's'  house(June 2023)Ps.116:15 NIVPrecious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants.