I asked her “how?”

She said it took her about ten years. When she knew of a want, a need or a love for something,
she would make it so.
 I packed.
We moved to the nursing home and settled in.
Soon John died. She followed within days.
Rita tended, and watched, planned and acted, spoke and listened, received and gave.
She made sending things on,
seeing other folks happy and pleased with her
offerings a part of going forward.
And you know after a while, it is or can be joyful.
You might come to love this path, feel and act younger, appreciate what you have and had even more, review memories, read old love letters and savor
 this very life by letting go. 

She gave me the gift of learning to let go with grace. She taught me care and appreciation for what we have, who is in our care. She showed me how to listen to another and how to behave as life brings its gift. Each passage is so,
each layers the other.

I try to figure out what to say to the Baby Boomers some twenty years younger than I, that this might be the time, to craft the language so they hear themselves say, “sending on, giving to, making sure”…being as thoughtful giving as in getting…we are stewards. Rita's gift…the surprise and wonder, unwrapping, opening, removing, trying on or trying out, using, using a lot, not using, forgetting, storing, finding, wonder, using, remembering that morning, deciding now, passing on. A prayer perhaps.

From the wise woman and fine neighbor and good friend,
my spirit guide, Rita Adams, thank you.