My two good friends both had their moms die within a week of each other this past fall.   They started to come to say kaddish during Shiva and Shloshim at our almost daily minyan.   They found comfort by walking this path together.      Often times it was just the three of us saying kaddish, remembering two really special ladies. Lillian the Good and Roberta the Inquisitive.    They came daily for the first few weeks, then weekly and and now the three of us get to together once a quarter to remember not just their moms,   but my mom too.  This morning instead of coming to the Temple we strapped on our snow shoes and went out in the lagoons on a glorious Wednesday morning.    We walked and talked, reflecting on the love that these strong woman shared in our lives. We stopped to say the Kaddish prayer as we talked about their love and their legacy.    My Mom would be 77 next week.     She died 10 years ago,  but today,  on this snowy morning more than ever,   she was alive and present in my mind and in my heart as were my friends mom's.  As we walked back to the car after saying our prayers,  I kept thinking about a poem i've used before at funerals but now understood it better than ever before.

Life After Death

~ Laura Gilpin

These things I know:

                How the living go on living

And how the dead go on living with them

So that in a forest

                Even a dead tree casts a shadow

                And the leaves fall one by one

And the branches break in the wind

And the bark peels off slowly

And the trunk cracks

                And the rain seeps in through the cracks

And the trunk falls to the ground

And the moss covers it

                And in the spring the rabbits find it

And build their nest

Inside the dead tree

So that nothing is wasted in nature

                                                                                                    Or in love.

 Marcia, Lillian and Roberta....Your boys are doing just fine.