My mother used to talk about you, always beginning with, “My friend Betty, who I think you would have much more in common with than I….”
And then we met! It must be twenty years ago now and you were in your late 70’s! So many elders that I know have shared that they feel that they are the cheese standing alone as their friends peel off the planet one by one and no one remains from the ‘old days’, but not you. Every year your birthday parties grow and the stories that you write and read so too!
St. Exupery once wrote “What we went through, no animal could go through” and I think of you. You who have buried your children, one after another, you who have suffered excruciating physical agonies, you who have risen above and identified yourself to yourself through your humanitarian efforts to educate women around the world and preserve the traditions of Native Americans through museums and artwork; you who have taken me by the hand and extended yourself to me in moments of darkness, you are a light that seems to want to burn and burn and touch others along the way.
When you decide to go, a flutter of golden leaves will lay a trail around the earth of Betty inspired expanded awareness. You will lift off onto the Blue Spirit Road and no doubt be greeted by a multitude of tiny white four-leggeds that love to snuggle in one’s lap, and you will tell them stories, as you have told us.
And now? I just wonder what you’ve been up to today.