In memory of Betty and Iola and Dorris

Psalm 102:18

Let this be written

for a future generation . . .

Alex Haley is often quoted as having said that when an old person dies, it is like a small library burning. 

The difference is, most libraries only have books for which there are duplicates in many other libraries. 


But when an old person dies, it is a tragic loss of the many and varied pages and chapters of the assorted books of that person's unique life . . . it is left to us, the living, to remember and record and memorialize their stories . . .

Remembering and honoring
the varied lives of . . .

BETTY NALLS
my neighbor and friend
21 January 1928 ~ 17 January 2018

IOLA AVRETT
my 1st cousin once removed
11 February 1921 ~ 20 January 2018

DORRIS HENRY
mother of my 2nd cousins
19 January 1926 ~ 20 January 2018

Let them not vanish

like ghosts of forgotten memories . . . 

The Book our Mothers Read

We search the world for truth, we cull
The good, the pure, the beautiful,
From graven stone and written scroll,
And all old flower-fields of the soul;
And, weary seekers of the best,
We come back laden from our quest,
To find that all the sages said
Is in the Book our mothers read.  

John Greenleaf Whittier
17 December 1807 ~ 07 September 1892
  See also . . . Christmas of 1888 Dear Home Faces

Old Orchard Beach

How will we know it's us without our past?

Ghosts of forgotten memories

Alex Haley is often quoted as having likened the death of an old person to the burning of a library . . . such a tragic loss of the many and varied pages and chapters of the assorted books of a unique life . . . and even more so if others have not listened to and remembered and memorialized the stories . . . then they just vanish . . . like ghosts of forgotten memories . . .

Remembering . . . Alexander Palmer Haley . . . born 11th August 1921 in Ithaca, New York . . . died 10th February 1992 in Seattle, Washington . . .

Penned with care

The following verse is from a 19th century friendship album that belonged to Berta Mary Henry nee Sharp (1873-1955)

Miss Berta

In the book of life
Gods album
May your name be
Penned with care
And may all who
Here have written
Write their names
Forever there.

Your friend
Russ

People of a distant past . . .

The pleasantest

of all diversions

is to sit alone

under the lamp,

 
a book spread out before you,
and to make friends
with people
of a distant past
you have never known.


Kenko
14th Century Japanese Writer
Essays in Idleness