international woman’s day march 8th

if i were in athens right now,
i would be riding public transport for free!
this morning, the bus was nowhere in sight..
walking down the footpath..to the sea...
the bus - heading up the hill as i reach the village!

today..
my mama’s death day..
one year ago ..

a few notes from her eulogy..
some poems ..some songs..

sallie’s fruitcake poem
(this poem was written after my father died..
and sallie began in earnest to sell her fruitcakes)

you may think this fruit cake
is just fruit and nuts,
spice, flour, sugar, shortening,
mixed, sifted and cut:

but tied in this package
is friendship and love
and warmth of a kind
as our father’s above.

for family emergency
changed in a day,
this cake as a hobby
to cake made for pay!

as neighbors and kind folk
from church, school and town
began to cut fruit, weigh the nuts
rally ‘round!

they’ve helped make and package
and even sell too,
this cake from our kitchen,
that now comes to you.



sallie’s quilt poem
written november 2, 1932

i can lay aside my studies without a
sense of guilt
if i have a thousand pieces to be sewn
into a quilt.
to be sewing them together from morn
until its night
i must confess its pleasure and forms my
chief delight.
to arrange the many colors so they’ll
make a perfect blend
is like visiting and conversing with an
old and honest friend.
when the thing is all together and the work
is fully done
i can dote upon a friendship quilt with
bushels full of fun.





bits of my eulogy for sallie..march 8, 2010

as it so happens,
my mama was the love of my life..
the 14th dalai lama speaks about
his first teacher..his mother..
who taught him lovingkindness and compassion.
indeed it is so with me as well..

my sister, sara and i are adopted..
that speaks volumes ..
we hit the jack-pot with our mother..
i was always so greatful she never turned us
(me, particularly)..back in!
heaven only knows
she had plenty of cause plenty of times..

sallie had a quality of equanimity
that was inspirational.
she opened her loving arms,
her kitchen, her home, her sewing basket
to o so many.

there is a saying in the middle east
that guest is god..
sallie honored that tradition
with the nantucket inn..
we had to keep the bathrooms soooo clean..
we could not leave our toothbrushes, hairbrushes anywhere..
for teen-age girls ~ that was a stretch..
yet it taught us to place others before ourselves..

sallie had an unfettered joy
deep in the landscape of her being..
she drew from that wellspring daily.
whenever hardship hit our family..
(often caused by one of her daughters!)
sallie would take up her needle and thread
and sew the world aright..
i witnessed this over and over and over again.

a tradition of sallie’s..
never leave home without a hankie..
carrying two was a good idea
so you would have one to give another in need..

it is sweet to me that sallie
left this earth on the 8th..
international women’s day..
also her thimble size..
she was an 8 and
she often had one on her finger..

my mama was always opening up..
like a tulip in the sun..
you have seen them yawn toward the light..
sallie’s spirit was such..
wide open to learn, to stretch..
even when she was unaware
of the expanse she was headed for..


those of you who have loved sallie
have stitched yourselves into a patchwork quilt
of lovingkindness and compassion,
of equanimity and unfettered joy
that wraps its cozy colours around her
and sends her on her way.....

row, row, row your boat
gently down the stream
merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily ~
life is but a dream!


great praise to all the mothers...
all the women of the world..
shine, shine, shine!
happy international women’s day!


(the day sallie died the sky was cloudless and clear)