On Friday we buried the ashes of Valjean and her mother, Wanda, in a single grave at St. Adalbert's cemetery on Milwaukee Avenue. Family and close friends were there to say goodbye, to mourn our loss, and to recall the many facets of Valjean's life and the impact she had on us and others. How absurd that she should now be in the ground. That she should not be. (She, of course, would say that I am the one being absurd: "We all have to get off the conveyor belt.")
It's a lovely spot, should you care to visit, away from the road, open to the sky but surrounded by trees. Surrounded, too, by many graves, old and new, with markers and, farther back, monuments, most of them bearing Polish names. Several of Wanda's relatives (Gawel) are there, in another section of the cemetery. Mary has ordered a simple marker for the two of them.
On another note entirely: Many people have asked about Sasha, Valjean's cat. She is now the proud owner of a new keeper, Sharon Kelly, in a veritable feline palace above the Kelly sisters' yarn shop, Arcadia. (Location, location, location.) Sharon -- a gifted caretaker -- reports that Sasha has taken contented ownership of the place, where she has a private bedroom and bathroom, an 80-foot run from one end of the apartment to the other, and many nooks and crannies for naps and cat-like solitude. A steady supply of high-quality and novelty yarn awaits her for many years to come.
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4 comments:
a story about sasha that says a lot about valjean: right after wanda died, when valjean went home afterward full of grief, sasha came over to valjean and laid at her feet a single kibble (from sasha's food dish)....it was clearly an offering of love....valjean ate it.....
she ate what life served with gusto.
I must confess that what I thought to myself as I watched Valjean's remains being put into the earth last friday. 'Valjean should be scattered in all the places she loved, disbursed as she was in life and not confined'
I know Valjean would say that it doesn't matter.
We came early and walked around the area she was buried. I felt very peaceful there. It is clearly for the living and not the dead. So why is VJ there anyway?
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I came across the Valjean blog just now, some 12 years after she died. She was a good friend... enormously talented, giving, fun person. I think of her frequently, but if I ever saw the messages from her friends, i don’t remember (among many other things!) Thank you to all who wrote here, bringing me to unexpected tears of sadness and joy. And to Valjean whose being still radiates for so many others.
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