ACT I: Send-off
A family like a garden—life-giving, even in loss.
But so tired. Wearied to their roots.
Today the Bradford clan celebrates the life of 42-year-old Emily Grace. Parents, siblings, and kin fill the front row.
From where I sit they look like flowers. Heads bow as blossoms will, after a downpour.
They wear pink, yellow, jade and navy and August green. There are strokes of black like the richest soil.
Staging the public goodbye depletes a family’s energies. It strip-mines their emotional marrow, their spiritual DNA.
And what of the mourners? [Read more…]