I have been in Boston for a week tomorrow. I have been visiting friends. I have been checking in at the UUA. I came up to Boston just after the funeral last Saturday.
When I came I was disoriented. Grieving. Tired. Very tired. I was coming down with a cold. The cold lingers. I am less disoriented. I have embraced the grieving, it doesn't possess me like last week. I experience myself owning the grief, and being deliberate about the process. I know I will still find myself overwhelmed and taken by aching sorrow. But right now it is more a sweet sorrow, a contemplative sigh.
Talking to people who knew Marjorie is good for the soul, good for the grieving. Thanks to all who gave of their time. One good friend observed that those I meet with, knew Marjorie as well, and that the sharing of stories with me was part of their grieving as well. She asked if that was difficult for me. I answered no. I find being alone more difficult, talking with others about Marjorie is healing.
I lived in Boston and its vicinity for most of my adult life. Being here, trying to navigate by rapid transit and bus, walking from the bus to this church, and that headquarters building has been a revelation. My body has become accustomed to a warmer, dryer winter than Boston presents. This is a warm day for Boston, but it is too cold and damp for me.
My soul loves Boston, but my body wants to be in LA. I think I will schedule my Boston visits for the warmer times in the future.
Keep talking to us about Marjorie, Clyde. We won't get tired of hearing your stories and it gives us a chance to tell ours.
My memory of Marjorie is of her welcoming charm when I was with a friend at a restaurant at a GA long past. My friend stopped to say hello and introduced her to me. I had heard of Marjorie many times and considered her legendary in UU circles. And here she was talking to me as though she were an ordinary person. I think I was a student at the time and quite blown away by being so close to greatness.
Later she was one of the women who briefly joined me in an online "let's lose weight" email list. I don't think very many of us lost any weight, but it was fun to trade hints and stories. I felt very honored that Marjorie was part of it.
And I learned, as I got to know her a bit more, that she was great but she was also ordinary, that she loved and struggled as we all do.
I was so tickled to learn that you and she were together and were getting married. I remember seeing you together at GA and Convo and smiling inwardly that you were together.
good to see u at church, thanks 4 talking...