Day 3 - What I'll remember

What I'll remember

Those stairs down to the basement
where you let me sleep
when I needed a place
where someone loved me enough
not to ask too many questions

Those walls down the stairs
lined with photo collages
your family extended through
three sons, a daughter,
and us, nieces and nephews
you adopted, took in
as needed through various
stages of adolesence and adulthood

In the back room of the basement
a wall of albums you filled
with loving clicks and grins
Captured here our lives
recorded by you, our faithful historian

Now it is our turn to remember you
preserve you with snapshots of our own

The deck overlooking the mountains
Those great big dogs
you taught me not to fear
The smell of a pipe smoked
a decade or two too long
The puzzles kept around to challenge us
because you thought we were all geniuses
A passion for geneology
enlarging your love of family

Your morning rants at the paper
over a kitchen table shared as generously
as wisdom, kindness, life

---
(With no apologies for sentimentality)

Au revoir...