Home Burial

We buried Gracie Lou
On a beautiful day.
Perfect weather.
Both families present
Entirely.

Walking down the slope to the grave
I exclaimed, “It’s so beautiful!”
Because it was: the colorful clothes
Juxtaposed with blue sky and green growth.

My Mom shot me a stricken look then,
But I wasn’t trying to be frivolous.
It was just achingly beautiful.

It was beautiful that the photographer showed
When he did, guided not by my faulty directions
But by a random man he stopped on the side of the road
Who didn’t direct him correctly, either,
But God did, and he arrived just in time.

I look at his photos and am struck with
How beautiful. Grief ravaged our faces:
Dad’s stern look, my isolation, Natalia’s exhaustion.
Tears on my sister’s face.

But also roses, also embrace, also color
And Scripture, and real handkerchiefs.
It was a beautiful service.
I think more people would have photographers
At funerals if they knew how beautiful
The photos would be.

And when we ate our formal dinner,
On a patio of bricks surrounded by flower gardens,
The woman of the house said later,
“This place was suffused with a special light.”

And so the day ended with beauty,
And family, and food, and laughter.

We grieve, but not as others who have no hope.
Thanks be to God.