<p>I lit another virtual candle in honor of Sunriseast. May the peace of the Lord be with you always, Sunrise.</p>
<p>bentshaftpaddle, thank you for joining us; we are honored and know your son will be a light in Sunrise and Coldad’s son’s years ahead. </p>
<p>I had never heard either of your songs. “sisters” is lovely in that choral treatment </p>
<p>I love your shared message CountingDown.</p>
<p>my candle is shining.</p>
<p>When I think of SR and the cancer she lived with, words like battle, fight, and struggle don’t do justice to her experience… Instead it was a journey for her into an ever deepening awareness of and presence to love, what it really means to live, gratitude, acceptance, and humility. I pray that I hold onto all that she learned. SR, I grew, too, as I witnessed your remarkable awakening…</p>
<p>bentshaftpaddle- Your songs,reflections,insights and words are beautiful. Thank you for sharing with us.</p>
<p>Sunrise and family- I hold you deeply in my prayers and thoughts. Wishing you peace.</p>
<p>Dear Sunrise, you will always be in our hearts!</p>
<p>[Somewhere</a> over the Rainbow - YouTube](<a href=“OFFICIAL Somewhere over the Rainbow - Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole - YouTube”>OFFICIAL Somewhere over the Rainbow - Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole - YouTube)</p>
<p>bentshaftpaddle, thank you.</p>
<p>Sunrise- Thank you for always sharing with us. Your writings have uplifted all of us, and changed or allowed us to think differently about so many things. I am sure that this wasn’t your intention, as all you sought initially was a place to seek advice. In two weeks I will be visiting a young oncologist at Dana Farber in Massachusetts. He has just finished his official training and started this permanent position. I will bring him a print-out of your postings. I am sure that this will help him in his journey to become. To become all the hope and wisdom and partnership you found with dear Dr. S. I will bring some extra copies for him to share. Thank you Sunrise. As always, please know that I will continue to think about your DH as he goes through the next stage of his journey. A dear friend of ours received a double lung transplant last summer and is doing really really well. I know that your DH will do well, too. Your IRL friends have started to post here, and boy can I see what you meant about how wonderful they are. They will take good care of your DH and SI and S2. Wishing you peace, dear friend.</p>
<p>Sunrise, as the first virtual candle I lit is burning down, know that I will light another and another after that. Many others will do the same to keep your path aglow with light, love and warmth. </p>
<p>Thank you for sharing with us all your remarkable journey…</p>
<p>Sunriseeast, thank you for sharing us your stories. I reread them and tears were in my eyes. You are such a remarkable woman. I am thinking of you.</p>
<p>There is more to that poem I’ve heard, and my mom asked to be read at her memorial service, I don’t know if it’s the same poem or similar:</p>
<p>Benediction by Rabbi Rosenfeld</p>
<p>WHEN I DIE give what’s left of me away
to children and old men that wait to die.
And if you need to cry,
cry for your brother walking the street beside you.
And when you need me, put your arms around anyone
and give them what you need to give me.
I want to leave you something,
something better than words or sounds.
Look for me in the people I’ve known or loved,
and if you cannot give me away
at least let me live in your eyes and not in your mind.
You can love me best by letting hands touch hands,
and by letting go of children that need to be free.
Love doesn’t die, people do
So when all that’s left of me is love,
give me away.</p>
<p>Amazing poem, ThreeKids. Thank you for sharing this with us.</p>
<p>Sunrise, you have been in my thoughts and heart. Lit a candle for you this morning and now a virtual one as well. I’m not good at these things. Much love and, you will be in my thoughts. What wonderful men you have had in your life. Coldad, and sons, you know already what a wonderful person you have had in yours. We, I know I, feel privileged to have shared a tiny piece of mine with her.</p>
<p>Sunrise, I thought of you and your family this morning as I saw the most glorious sunrise after a wicked night of storms. The sunlight reflected off the clouds & warmed the earth, just as you have done for so many people. Thank you.</p>
<p>Thinking of sunrise and her family, and keeping them in my prayers.</p>
<p>I like the many beautiful poems and prayers that others have posted. In my rock and roll soul, I think of the Springsteen tune, Cadillac Ranch. “When I die throw my body in the back, and drive me to the junk yard in my Cadillac.” My own faith is not so particularly strong, but I would like to believe that the body is just the vessel, and the soul endures.</p>
<p>Threekids, thanks for printing the entire poem. There was a scrap of it in the booklet I had, without attribution to the author, so I just cited where I found it. It is quite moving.</p>
<p>Heartfelt thanks for all of the postings of reflections, poems, and songs. I’ve copied what I came across and put it into a word file to remember…</p>
<p>One of the best books I ever read was the Bridge over the San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. The final passage in that book, copied below, was the voice of a nun speaking, who had, like others, lost a loved one on the bridge when it collapsed. Her deeper understanding says it all.</p>
<p>Even now, she thought,
almost no one remembers
Esteban and Pepita, but myself.<br>
Camila alone remembers her Uncle Pio
and her son;
this woman her mother.<br>
But soon we shall all die
and all memory of those five
will have left the earth,
and we ourselves shall be loved
for a while and forgotten.<br>
But the love will have been enough;
all those impulses of love
return to the love that made them.<br>
Even memory is not necessary for love.<br>
There is a land of the living
and a land of the dead
and the bridge is love,
the only survival, the only meaning.</p>
<p>The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder, p. 148.</p>
<p>12rmh18, we must live in the same area. There were gale-force winds overnight here, too. I was awake between 2:30 and 4:30 because the storm was so loud. I thought of sunrise, as you did, but for me, the winds themselves seemed a metaphor for her magnificently fierce soul. </p>
<p>Threekids, thank you for posting that poem. I find it beautiful and comforting.</p>
<p>I too thought of Sunrise this morning. I thought of her and how last night’s storm had finally passed and how the sun is shining once again and it is a beautiful and glorious morning. Praying she is resting comfortably and at peace. And praying her family will find the beauty in each and every sunrise that is epitomy of their wife/mother.</p>
<p>As I sit here waiting for my oncologist to come in the exam room, my thoughts are with Sunrise. While I am 20 years cancer free, I feel sad that Sunrise is not sitting here for a visit. </p>
<p>Sunrise, you and your family will be in my heart everyday.</p>
<p>Snowball, we all wish you health! Like other posters, we had high winds all night. The light from the sun this morning is particularly glowing, mysterious and beautiful since the clouds cleared. Blessings to the family and friends of sunriseeast this morning.</p>