Rosemary Smith

Rosemary loved “gatherings,” connecting with people, celebrating all kinds of occasions.  She loved preparing meals to share, joining with others at restaurants and parties.  She and her grandson Jonathan already were making plans for the next gathering, Jon making a list of all who would attend, planning the menu.

The plans were interrupted and now she is gone.  Or is she?  When we begin to see differently and experience life in all its fullness we know that she is not really gone, but has transitioned to a new place, totally present in an even greater gathering. She now experiences deep communion with everyone she ever loved, her mom and dad, her beloved husband Bill, her brother Bernard, Irene and Bobby, so many of her cherished friends.  She can breathe again, travel great distances, and dance to her heart’s content.  She now experiences what we can only glimpse in fleeting moments; that she is one with everything and everyone, even the birds, the butterflies, the ocean.  And we can meet her everywhere if we would learn to see and know the oneness of us all.

We have experienced the pain of not being physically present  with her as she lived her last days here on earth, and now the separation, each of us  in our own place, not able to gather together to grieve and tell the stories of her life.  We are being taught such lessons if we would listen to the deep meaning in all of this.

We are meant to be together, to lean on and support each other Separateness is an illusion we have been living with for a long time and it has stolen from us what it means to live in paradise.  We are one with everything and our forced isolation is teaching us that we long to be together, to be one.

We will drive to Calverton Cemetery and leave Rosemary at the gate of her body’s final resting place.  Her spirit has already soared beyond what any gate could contain.  We could not go to church, but the words of the final ritual can sound in our ears.

“May the angels lead you into paradise”