Lost in Light: A Tribute to My Grandmother

Three years ago today, my grandmother Adele Sunshine passed away. She was an amazing woman. There are many people more qualified than I who could tell you about all she did. I know that she taught special education in inner city schools, had six children with an incredible number of advanced degrees between them, traveled the world, collected jigsaw puzzles and cared for a magnificent 3-story Victorian house until she was well into her 80s. Unfortunately, she moved to Tennessee just as I was becoming old enough to appreciate what an incredible person she was, and I visited her only once every year or two after that point. I love her so much, and I wish I had known her better.

Anyway, I wrote this poem around the time of her death but only now have worked up the courage to share it.

Lost in Light

I watch the embers of your heart

that glistened, glowed all these long years

grow dim.  I see the creeping night

and feel the swelling weight of tears.

I see resplendent fireworks

that flashed against a velvet sky

fade into brittle golden dust,

doomed to disintegrate and die.

I see an end to all I knew of you,

love’s promised heights unreached,

a book slammed shut before the end,

then burned to ash, no more to teach.

Your path winds upward into mist

that veils your destination’s peak,

as from my eyes you quickly fade,

too distant now to see or speak.

My eyes must close to see the truth

that though the path you tread is steep,

you now can soar on borrowed wings

to Him who made the lame to leap.

A star dissolving in the dawn,

you fade away from earthly sight,

but eyes of faith can look beyond,

to see you laughing, lost in light.