I picked up my brother's remains at the Post Office the other day.
He died June 9th in an alzheimer's ward in Tucson where he's been for about three years.
During the lock down they would not allow visitations and this year changed to allow visits
if you were fully vaccinated. I did that by the middle of April but wasn't able to get to Tucson
until June 6th, the day before his birthday. I found him in a coma. I spent a while talking to him,
knowing it would be the last time, stroking his hair and had a few tears. Poor guy has been far gone
for quite a while, two Master's degrees, a history whiz.
When the postman brought the box marked Cremated Remains out from the back and put it on
the counter I had the weirdest sensation realizing that my brother Dan was in there. Then the drive home
with me talking to the box. Soon I'll go to put his ashes with my mom's in some trees overlooking an
old ghost town in New Mexico.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Your brother is in a better place now, and his trials are over. May he rest in peace.
You were a kind and loving brother, so remember the good times. When you see your brother in Heaven, you'll have so many great stories to tell him.
BY KARIN GOTTSHALL
You were carried here by hands
and now the wind has you, gritty
as incense, dark sparkles borne
in the shape of blowing,
this great atmospheric bloom,
spinning under the bridge and expanding—
shape of wind and its pattern
of shattering. Having sloughed off
the urn's temporary shape,
there is another of you now—
tell me which to speak to:
the one you were, or are, the one who waited
in the ashes for this scattering, or the one
now added to the already haunted woods,
the woods that sigh and shift their leaves—
where your mystery billows, then breathes.
Peace to your brother and to you.
sorry for your loss
