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.

 

 

 

 

Mourning # 20

Mourning # 20

 

And now – double lockdown

we couldn’t go out except for necessities

now necessities aren’t necessary

what is? taxes and death?

is there any more severe measure

our leaders could adopt? – yes.

there is permanent lockdown

there is never go out ever again

death-row solitary-confinement life, life-

not-life – there is no sun underground

triple lock down for all, some now

some next month, we’re all bound;

headed there soon, to the land of doom

that’s banal, but true, the banal truth.

 

---- Alexa Rose Veit, a teenager, 15,

and a cancer survivor from Kentucky and

a special needs individual contracted

leukemia in 2019. In 2020 she and her mother

began experiencing symptoms of the 

coronavirus and both tested positive and were

hospitalized. Alexa’s older sister also tested

positive as did their grandparents who were

hospitalized, also in Nashville. Her mother

survived; Alexa did not.

 

Her high school, Ballard Memorial, wrote

“Our world is a little less bright without Alexa

in it…. We will miss her special kind of mischief,

her infectious smile, and the laugh that never

failed to light up a room.”

 

 

Mourning # 19

Mourning # 19

 

All my life I’ve loved God and Jesus

Christ, my personal savior, who

protects us always if we renounce sin.

I went to church at the invitation

of our Pastor and Praised the Lord.

We sang and prayed and holiness

reigned. We said Peace Be Unto You

and hugged and hugged and sang

and prayed. We knew we were

violating the new laws but we proudly

held to the old higher laws. Confident our faith,

not demon masks, would protect us. So many 

sinners out there looking at their inter-net 

and dreaming of riches in this life, but we … we …

 

---- A Michigan couple, Leslie and Patricia

McWaters, both died from Covid-19 on

November 24^th. They had been married for

47 years. Leslie, known as LD, was a truck

driver and a veteran in the US Naval Reserve.

Pat was an RN who spent 35 years in 

the operating room at Foote Allegiance Hospital

in Jackson, Michigan, her home town. LD was also

a Jackson native.

 

Pat was the boss; LD was the joker, ‘the king

of one-liners.’ But Pat got the last laugh as her

daughter, Joanna Sisk, imagined that Pat went

first and then said like always, “LD, it’s time to go!”

 

The couple loved dancing at the bar where they met.

They loved playing cards with their friends.

They drove their 1959 Corvette to car shows.

They are survived by two daughters and three

grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

 

 

Mourning # 18

Mourning # 18

 

We could drink this whole bottle

of Mom’s best bourbon, but we’d

have to toast with every sip an’

I’m not sure we could think of

enough good things to say about

the old bat, and I have to pick up the kids from ballet.

 

After his divorce like twenty years ago

he lived alone and now he died

alone and old with the television on

when the neighbors called the cops

because of the smell. Evidently

he got sick and just surrendered to the pain and its relief.

 

The only person that she told was her brother

that her job caring for dying COVID patients

weighed on her so much that she’d almost 

rather die, neither took the remark seriously

but then she got pneumonia from the virus

and told her brother, just before she went into

the ICU that she never meant what she’d said

she was just tired and depressed and angry at the government.

 

Every story is a story.

 

---- Han Sim (Kim) Hildebrand grew up in

a fishing village on the island of Dura-Ri

in South Korea where she suffered from hunger

in her childhood. She was 4 feet 11 inches tall.

She married an American serviceman and moved

to Missouri. She had to learn English. She knew

no other Koreans in her new home. Her marriage

didn’t last. Her second marriage didn’t either.

Then she married Jim Hildebrand, who called her

“the mouse that could fight the lion.” They were

married for 32 years until her death from Covid.

They built a thriving vegetable business. 

 

Han Sim seemed to have beaten the coronavirus

after a two-month hospital stay. She was weaned off

the ventilator, she was in good spirits, smiling and

waving. The nurses said, “She’s like a Houdini, we

can’t believe how fast she’s come back.”

 

She was an inspiration and a model of strength

to her husband and children and everyone else

who knew her.