She lives in your warm smile
and your easy laugh,
your purposeful hugs;
She lives in the way you keep house
and home and family together,
in the part of you too that would see the world;
She is in your eyes and all they have seen,
in your hands resting gently on tired shoulders,
in your heart of tender steel;
She drives with you through Minnesota,
away from the cities and farms
to where the trees turn birch
and the lakes become personal;
She stands with you at the front door,
welcoming, and again
with your smile your laugh your hugs;
She will be forever the reason
you are cousin, sister, brother,
the ones to call her grandma,
the man who named her Bunny;
She will linger
in your lefse heritage, your Norwegian souls,
in the percolating aromas of morning coffee
in the happy of happy hour;
She will resonate
in your day to day testimony,
your quiet evening prayer,
the hymn you hum.
Once she was the one
who worked the lathe
and weaved rugs
and moved heavy stones to a beachfront dock;
It was not long ago
she paddled a canoe
and cleaned the fish we caught;
not so long ago we drove to Idaho
And she worked crossword puzzles
and knitted sweaters
and baked pies and cookies
She would gently massage the knots out of your neck
without you ever asking
and one day she hugged you
from the back of your chair
and said I am so happy you are here.
Now you hike through the woods
and walk a beast of a dog;
you find your lifelong companion
and you keep planting trees
and watching them grow;
And you travel the world
and you never run out of places to go
but you keep coming home
To sit on the deck, to watch
the rising sun, the setting sun
or in the house by the hearth
you watch the fire
And you will hold this as long as you can,
maybe you will glimpse heaven,
or simply appreciate the moment
But you will smile
and she will live on in your smile.
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