Ann
It has been snowing for a half hour while still dark I shined a flashlight out the window and it was falling in a slant the scant leaves told no wind so I ruled out rain, and not hail nor sleet either at the end of October after a day of soaking rain to bring the wells up and now it is light and despite my lamp’s reflection in the window I can see the flakes falling between our houses filling the space to the trees backed by the fence the second raking not yet done leaves sodden give up pressed to the ground their colors traded for browns including the cherry’s and now the storm is thickening and the trees beyond the fence are blurred cedar, pine and spruce with respect to their distances and the bush that still retains its leaves is being coated on which the birds perch now flocking to the feeders and the leaves are bedding down the snow that the gravel driveway still melts so it has made one friend again but who can replace Ann who died this week in her son’s arms my Quaker friend for years we drove each other and talked along the way set up for the pot lucked movies I took her to the classical concerts in Kinderhook she’d buy me lunch in the café down from the church Mozart Beethoven Hummel Handel Bach and Haydn where Vicky’s husband conducted the orchestra and Sandy, Vicky and Noah sang in the chorus she had a piano in her house and played a wind instrument and bridge we worked on book sales fundraisers for our meetinghouse she lifting boxes my back could not and sorting them into categories other Quakers would dispute, the same book moving among disciplines over several days she’d give me pens after I started writing poems in meeting for worship and a sweater she’d knitted one night in the dark and snow she fell on the stone steps huge slate they’d lifted all together on her hands and knees somehow still holding her dish it had snowed then too and it was slippery and dangerous just the two of us always arriving early she was quite prompt we worked the jazz concerts together she at the door collecting money and presold tickets which had got printed she made many arrangements for our county fair exhibit of the solitary confinement cell replica two years running and sat with me to explain to passersby why the hearts of men and women deadened in that hole she had a fine sense of humor and the prettiest face with a warm smile her daughter and granddaughter shared attended national Quaker conferences and would speak of a gathered meeting always brought the bagels helped families in need without asking questions she was kind and a good listener with great stories taught me words to long for me to have remember we talked of flowers and bushes that bloom in spring she loved to read both heavy and light and she’d give me Jack Reacher novels we would sit in the car before taking her home and she’d look out into the field behind the meeting house the wheels of hay rolled up on the almost drumlin trees behind fine in any season and exclaim the beauty of the view now the snow is weighing down my yew roofs have whitened and I’m frightened all alone my throat constricted I wished I’d called her more but many times we talked just on the phone the rain in my eyes I wish would change to snow so I could blink and see where I’m to go Bob Elmendorf
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November 2024
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