Deep grief is quiet. It settles in the heart. It stays there. It softens but never disappears. My circle gets smaller as I grow older. My grandparents left first. My parents and my aunts and uncles left next. No one ever tells you how awful it is to lose your parents. The hole never closes. I have lost dear friends, as close as family friends. Last week I lost the closest, but she had been disappearing. She had Alzheimer’s. Yet, I was surprised when she died. After I heard, I just sat and everything disappeared, all my thoughts, all my feelings. I couldn’t grab hold of anything. Now I can sit with my memories. I laugh a lot.

Yesterday I visited my former neighbors who had moved from next door to a larger house and yard. They came from Brazil years ago. We sat and chatted. We drank mimosas and ate plantain and Brazilian linguica. It was a wonderful afternoon, a perfect time to be with friends.

Labor Day is late this year which is a good thing as it always signals the end of summer. School starts here just after the holiday. The tourists hang round, but fewer are here during the week. The weekends stay busy. The tour buses start. We won’t get the cape back until November.

Today I am seeing a play with a friend, the musical The Girl from North Country. Tomorrow is the last Monday concert of the summer. We always play Irish music last. We dress in green and wear fascinators with shamrocks or leprechauns. It is a lively concert. I’m glad for lively.

The weather has been delightful. Right now it is 77°. I love the view outside my window. I can see the sunshine through the oak leaves on the tree closest to the house. From in-between the top branches I have glimpses of the blue sky. The air is quite still. It is a quiet Sunday.

This entry was posted on August 30, 2026 at 11:20 am and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.