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By Sigrid Settle
Special to the Crier
There seems to be times in life when people intersect in ways that bring truths into life that may not have come any other way. I recently lost a member of our family. She had lived a long life, left beautiful children behind and memories that will last even though she is not here to celebrate family times with us again. Her last words were spoken in her kitchen telling her spouse that she didn’t know what to fix for dinner, said she felt dizzy and collapsed in his arms never to have a conversation with anyone ever again.
Another person contacted me during this period of loss to share yet another passing. The person who had passed was very young, at the beginning of her twentieth year and drowned in the ocean she swam in so often. She drowned during the night, in the dark, alone but close to nature; a nature that embraced her soul every time she had the opportunity to be one with it. She had left behind someone who had begun a relationship with her. A relationship sweet and innocent, but too new to have been completely fulfilled. An emptiness was left behind and the questions hung in the air as to what would have happened if it had reached its maturity.
One person who had lived their life completely and another person at the beginning of her life. They left behind, each in their own way, questions as to what would have been if they had each lived their life a bit longer. And I came to realize whether life is long and fulfilling or short and unfulfilled, it left behind the sense for each of the people so close to them that they had lost something that could never be regained again.
It is not the length of time we spend with someone, but how they touched our hearts that leave the sweetest of memories that embrace our hearts.
And so it goes at the Ranch…
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