Remembering a beloved | Jules Ko Photography
Something seems extra special about this year’s foliage. Or maybe I am seeing things in a new light in between hospital visits, working from home, and praying for people in my life who are having difficult seasons. A very important person loved foliage, so much that for practically every wedding anniversary, she asked to go see the autumn foliage as her anniversary gift. In the last autumn of her life, I picked the prettiest foliage I could find, pressed it in Boston, tied a bow around a small bouquet before carefully flying it in my lap to her hospital bed in Seattle, hoping it wouldn’t be her last. About a month later, my mother passed away, nearly 4 years ago in the hands of stomach cancer.
This year on my trip to Seattle, I picked a few pretty leaves and left it at her tombstone, wondering, how is it that my own lively mother even has a tombstone. Wishing for the few leaves to stay near her, I picked a few pebbles from a nearby flower bed and placed them above the leaves, feeling very much like a small child, looking for treasures in a stream.
The downside of the beautiful foliage, I guess, is the fact that those leaves are dying. But some, like my mother, are beautiful to the very end.
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