Mourning # 29

Mourning # 29

 

I’m so sorry you’re gone

not sure how we carry on

I wasn’t there when you passed

because we were governed by a psychopath

when history tallies all the sums

we will realize what we have done

the dead will still be dead

the living filled with regret

I’m so sorry you’re gone

not sure how we carry on.

 

---- Art and music, 

art and music teacher, Melinda 

Roellig, 37, of Clarksville, Indiana

homemade Christmas gifts for family prepared

including her own paintings, personalized

"she put her heart into it and it just makes you

smile because you know how much she cares"

now will they be opened, will they be loved

Melinda died one week after getting a fever

without telling her relatives, her mother a nurse

when she checked on Melinda she called 911

Melinda died in the ambulance, she feared her

insurance wouldn’t pay, instead when others fell 

sick she’d take care of them, she had perfect 

pitch sang as a kid, played in the marching band

trumpet and painting at University of Louisville

she loved Harry Potter, got a Master’s degree

taught music at public school and art at the

charter school, her students adored her, she

taught choir after school, former student Carey

Walls said: She changed my life.

 

Melinda Roellig, art and music teacher, is survived

by her mother, stepfather, step-siblings, father, step-

mother, half-sister, brother, two nieces. And her art and

music students, whatever they wind up doing with that.

Art and music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mourning # 28

Mourning # 28

 

The gulls and crows had picked

the kitten’s head and guts out

it lay soaking wet in the road

on our evening walk we turned away

when we saw how dead it was

that it was a mess, a kitten no more

one tiny soul like a puff gone on

in the seabreeze in January

during the worst pandemic we’ll ever see

two million souls and rising

collecting the puffs together would create

a permanent fog we’d live in the rest

the foggy rest of our lives.

 

---- Carole Brookins, 76, a financial consultant from

Palm Beach, Florida died of the novel coronavirus.

Her firm, Public Capital Advisors, was only one of 

Carole’s many activities. She founded First Alliance 

Foundation to bring together US and French military 

leaders. She had just returned from Paris, her favorite 

city, when she became ill. Carole Brookins was a member 

of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was a former 

Wall Street executive and director of the World Bank during

the George W. Bush administration. One of her passions

was to help developing countries build infrastructures

because, “if you don’t have roads you can’t get to the health

care center.”

Carole Brookins had no family, but many close friends. 

She had, “amazing enthusiasm for people, places

and issues.”

 

 

 

 

 

Mourning # 27

Mourning # 27

 

Spirit woman

dressed all in red

Spirit woman

collecting the dead

I beg you to leave me

I beg you not to set me free

life is a gift

though I don’t let it show

give me another breath

I’ll tell you when I’m ready

to go

with you

into a new dimension

Spirit woman.

 

---- Fire chief of Ludlow, Vermont,

Robert Kirkbride served as an infantry-

man in WWII and a military policeman

in the Korean War. He was a police

officer in Burlington, Vermont, then he

served for 60 years as a firefighter and

fire chief in Ludlow. He was 93.

He still drove his own car and mowed his

own lawn and appeared in full uniform in

the annual Memorial Day Parade.

Last year his wife of 67 years died, and then

his son of 56 died suddenly as well.

In March 2020 Chief Kirkbride developed 

bronchitis and was admitted to White River 

Medical Center where he died two weeks 

later. No funeral could be held; the family 

is hoping to hold a memorial for Robert

Kirkbride when possible.

 

Mourning # 26

Mourning # 26

 

Winter weeds are taking control

of the territory around the dormant

flowers, but I can’t be bothered.

I lost my father yesterday, and I can’t

cry. When I was young he made me

cry a lot, but now I’m numb, stunned.

I got a call from the hospital admin-

istration asking for disposition, if I

had already made arrangements.

They wanted to release the corpse.

It’s raining so hard outside right now.

Two million people died before old Dad,

but they were only data. Now the virus

is solid. Like it’s always been solid to

the doctors and nurses. I could go

to the hospital, but I can’t see him

anyway. And it’s still raining.

 

---- Gary Young, customer service rep-

resentative for Lowe’s Hardware from Gilroy 

California, famous for the annual Garlic 

Festival, died of Covid-19 on March 17, 

2020. He was 66.

Gary was a talker, he loved to chat with

everyone, he loved to make people laugh

by telling jokes, everyone in town knew and

liked Gary because he was so garrulous.

The wait staff in restaurants where he ate

remembered him by name. The customers

at Lowe’s always got a friendly chat with

Gary Young. He engaged; he made connections;

he created human networks. We need that.

Gary seemed too young and too exuberant 

to die. Now everyone who ever knew him feels his

loss.

 

 

 

 

Mourning # 25

Mourning # 25

 

Driving down to County General

to see my dear old Ma

stopped at a light in the crosswalk

an ice cream cone on the ground

I thought that was so sad

they honked at me to go

an ice cream cone had fallen

some clumsy kid had lost a cone

I’m staying at Ma’s house while she’s

laid up, wondering if when she’s done

could I have her spoon collection

whether burial or cremation

they let me look through the tent

all we can do is wave

I’m thankful for the doctors and nurses

and all the people they can save.

 

---- Shirley Bannister, 57, and her daughter

Demetria Bannister, 28, died weeks apart in

South Carolina. Demetria, who died first was

an elementary school teacher while Shirley

was a gerontology nurse for 30 years before

becoming head of nursing at Midlands Tech.

Both were described as loving, caring, generous

helpers. Demetria was called “a spitting image

of her mother.” “She loved mentoring kids and

making learning fun.” She was known at Windsor

Elementary as “Windsor’s Songbird” because she

loved singing and organized student productions.

Initially she showed no symptoms and followed

all safety protocols. On Sept. 4 she was admitted

to the hospital and died 3 days later. A double

funeral was organized. Dennis Bannister, Shirley’s

husband and Demi’s father called them, “The

light of any room.”

 

 

 

 

Mourning # 24

Mourning # 24

 

That magpie has a bit of string in its beak

guess they’re building a new house, here comes

the missus they’re so elegant in white shirts

and black suits but they sure squawk a lot

couples create their own dynamics

the magpies mate for life you know, my cat

is afraid of them but they mean no harm

magpies like two planes coming into SFO

here comes one, here comes the other right

behind, if you ever went out to Coyote Point to see

them you know, maybe that bit of string

I saw was actually a worm – dinner for two

with a coupon, magpies are tightwads.

 

---- Gerda Garbatzky escaped from Nazi-occupied

Austria at the start of WWII. The home she fled to in

Birmingham was bombed. Her father, grandmother and

other relatives were killed by the Nazis. She settled in

New York. Then she got breast cancer. She survived.

 

Her grandson, Geoffrey Sorenson, wanted to grieve 

with his family for Grandma Gerda but he could not

because he had COVID too. When he posted an obituary

online he got thousands of responses. His grandmother, 

he said, would have been honored.

 

Gerda Garbatzky, a retired bookkeeper, was 90 years old.

 

 

Mourning # 23

Mourning # 23

 

You had muscles, you had flesh

I touched your hair, I felt your breath

your clothes remain, that mattress stain

you’re in my heart, in my brain

you’re all I had left

now gone.

 

We couldn’t hug, we couldn’t kiss

what a shame, what horror is this

all contagious, it’s outrageous

getting victims from all ages

go on, make a wish

be gone.

 

---- Josephine Schirripa’s son Michael

was being treated for coronavirus at

Staten Island University Hospital where

he is a doctor treating coronavirus patients

and Michael’s mother, Josephine, aged 90,

was a coronavirus patient at the same 

hospital at the same time, but Dr. Michael

Schirripa did not learn this until just before

he was to be released. Michael was feeling

poorly when the nurses wheeled him into

the hallway to go see his mother. “I touched

her knee, she opened her eyes, looked at me

and lipped, ‘You’re OK,’ and I said, ‘Yeah,

I’m OK,’” Michael recalled. “She seemed

at ease.

Josephine Schirripa, a homemaker from

New York, died on April 11, 2020.

 

 

 

 

Mourning # 22

Mourning # 22

 

The monarchs come up from Mexico

and gather in the eucalyptus trees

in Pacific Grove, south of Monterey

except in the last year the orange and

black beauties are scarce, 400,000

fewer conclave as living leaves

flutter mate feast celebrate life as they

should. 2 million gone – we’re all butter-

flies here today then away we fly

yet when I see those nearly naked trees

I cry.

 

---- Brian R. Miller, 52, went blind at 20

and nonetheless traveled to 65 countries.

He spoke several languages: Spanish German

and Russian. He earned a Ph.D. in history and

had limitless knowledge on any subject. Brian

worked on disability rights for the U.S. Dept.

of Education. His mother said: “Nothing was

going to stop him…” After receiving condolences

from people all over the world, she said: “It’s

overwhelming and really gratifying to know how

many people he touched.”

 

When he died of COVID on April 30, 2020, Brian

Miller was planning to travel with his guide dog

to Ireland, Mongolia and Ukraine.

 

 

 

Mourning # 21

Mourning # 21

 

My beloved daughter

the sun rose with you in the morning

and set with you at night

sure, we had our scraps

that’s growing up (or not)

for us both / I never wanted

anyone but you

your smile like you had

a naughty secret, stolen cookie

whoopee cushion, I loved

that smile, I love you –

always. now every day

living makes no sense

why do anything if you’re not here

-- maybe it’s best we didn’t get

to say goodbye, so I will keep you

alive in my heart, keep you safe

from this scourge, hold you up

for all to adore, now and forever

as words fail me

thoughts fail me

feelings, I don’t know

life has failed.

 

---- Shannon Bennett, 39, was an openly

gay Florida sheriff’s deputy who died on April 3, 

2020 of COVID-19. Shortly before contracting 

the virus, he had proposed marriage to his fiancé.

He was a school resource officer at Deerfield

Beach Elementary. His soulmate, Jonathan Frey,

described their relationship which began in 2013

when they met while volunteering at an LGBTQ

mental health center and how they got engaged

at Disney World last December. Both Frey and

the director of the Florida Police Chiefs Assoc-

iation, Amy Mercer, described themselves as

“devastated,” at the loss of Shannon Bennett.