Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Dying

My mother tells me that Alva Pentecost is at the Royal Vic, dying in the same hospital in which I was born. Indeed, Alva always enjoyed reminding me that she was one of the first people I met there. My mother and Alva went to school together and have been friends now for more than 75 years. I’ve heard, too, that Pascal Sharpe—a friend of a friend of mine and one grade ahead—died last year at 49. The dead begin collecting slowly enough, I suppose, then faster, like the obituaries between the pages of my mother’s high-school yearbook.
Posted by Roy Schulze at 9:51 PM
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17 comments:

  1. Roy SchulzeFebruary 7, 2012 at 11:54 AM

    Alva died on May 15, but from what my mother tells me, she got to spend her last few days surrounded by family and friends and talking on the phone with the people who couldn't make it in person.

    Here’s a link to nice tribute put together by the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, where she'd been a member since 1944.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Roy SchulzeFebruary 7, 2012 at 11:57 AM

    Posted to ABC Wednesday.

    ReplyDelete
  3. photowannabeFebruary 7, 2012 at 1:52 PM

    Obituaries between the pages of the yearbook. that's very poetic and profound.
    I'm finding that my yearbook is beginning to fill up too. Aging can be difficult at times.

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  4. Roger Owen GreenFebruary 7, 2012 at 1:59 PM

    Yeah, there is an inevitable acceleration of the process.
    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

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  5. Laura BloomsburyFebruary 7, 2012 at 4:42 PM

    we are coming closer to the end of the line, day by day

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yogi♪♪♪February 7, 2012 at 7:15 PM

    It is amazing the number of friends, family, classmates, coworkers, and acquaintances who are gone.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Chubskulit RoseFebruary 7, 2012 at 11:19 PM

    Everyday, we never know what will happen.

    Dolce & Gabbana

    Rose, ABC Wednesday Team

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  8. Tumblewords:February 7, 2012 at 11:28 PM

    So many are gone. This is finely descriptive.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Greensboro Daily PhotoFebruary 8, 2012 at 6:37 AM

    Just lost a friend yesterday. This post makes me realize the value of discussing teach in a shared space. Not a happy, but a necessary, inevitable "D"!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Greensboro Daily PhotoFebruary 8, 2012 at 6:38 AM

    That's DEATH and not TEACH (above)!

    Janis

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  11. GattinaFebruary 8, 2012 at 3:49 PM

    I noticed that we don't get anymore cards announcing weddings, but funerals !
    That's life
    Gattina
    ABC Wednesday

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  12. Roy SchulzeDecember 21, 2013 at 5:10 PM

    Added to the regrettable finale of Sunday Scribblings.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Old EggDecember 22, 2013 at 12:43 AM

    How true it is that as a youngster death rarely touches you but time soon rights that and age allows you to join a very big club indeed.

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  14. Linda JacobsDecember 22, 2013 at 3:43 PM

    Your prose poem captures the collecting of deaths so well and so sadly!

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  15. BerowneDecember 22, 2013 at 4:33 PM

    As that Stratford chap wrote, life falls "into the sere, the yellow leaf."

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  16. miss pieDecember 27, 2013 at 3:20 PM

    funny how the meaning of death changes as we grow older... revealing itself in the collected sunsets...

    ReplyDelete
  17. Magical Mystical TeacherJanuary 1, 2014 at 8:50 PM

    It's a new year, and Sunday Scribblings 2 is a new place for prompts for writers of whatever genre. I was sorry to see Sunday Scribblings go, so I decided to continue the tradition. Each Wednesday, I will post a new prompt. At midnight Friday, you will be able to link your writing to this site: Sunday Scribblings 2

    The prompt is up. Please join us!

    ReplyDelete

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