“If not for reverence, if not for wonder, if not for love, why have we come here?” Raffi

Dearly Loved Family,

First came the news that Beautiful Cousin Sally Kirkwood Downs had left this Earth on Monday, June 10th in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

And then we learned that Cousin Patricia’s Beloved Niall McHugh had drawn his last breaths days later on Thursday, June 13th in Ireland.

I immediately resolved to post something to the blog, all the while holding a romantic image of us all as a human circle, embracing across the distance and time.  I wanted words filled with love and celebration and family and courage ~ an attempt to soothe and hold us close ~ which I never found a way to express that even approximated what I was feeling.  My ambition far exceeded my ability ~ in scope, and also in my desire for words that were not trite or meaningless. So much for those good intentions.

We Punnett descendants are separated and far-flung in ways that were not foreshadowed in our close-knit youth,  and we are often immersed in lives that put constraints on our ability to travel to each other. There are wonderful exceptions like Beej and Don who continue to make a point of gathering with family on different continents.  Mostly, celebrations and losses are marked in physical isolation from one another, but I believe that, in spirit, we rise above those divides, feeling abiding love and care for the joys and trials in each other’s lives.

“You can kiss your family and friends goodbye

and put miles between you,

but at the same time, you carry them with you

in your heart, your mind, your stomach

because you do not just live in a world.

A world lives in you.”

Frederick Buechner

Sally entered my life through a photograph of a radiant beauty on Granny’s shelf of family pictures in the morning room at Hope. Auntie Thelma's presence was felt in the Valley for decades after her time on Earth had ended, and she and her children were familiar through the displayed photographs and occasional news. Years later Sally came home to the Valley, but by then I was living off island. Thanks to communication technology, and her lovely Colleen, I actually came to have a few exchanges with her in recent times.

Colleen wrote that Sally was chatting and laughing with her carers minutes before she stopped breathing. What a cheerful thought to hang on to.

Niall, we have known for some half a century!  He and Patricia made of their lives together a sustained love story that bore wonderful fruit and triumphed over adversity.  Together they created a home that was welcoming, joyful, courageous, and fun… and brought inro being two generations of splendid young people ~ that’s what I always hear from people who know them!

“Niall leaves behind a life filled with beautiful memories,

stirring conversations, joy and endless love.“

taken from

https://rip.ie/death-notice/niall-joseph-henry-mchugh-wicklow-ashford-559354

There is a Condolence Book, open for messages until August 13.

https://rip.ie/death-notice/condolences/niall-joseph-henry-mchugh-wicklow-ashford-559354?page=1&records=60&sortFields=a.createdAt&sortDirection=DESC

I am sad that Sally and Niall are gone from us, sad that we are robbed of the chance to make more memories, but I celebrate that they made rich, enjoyable, good lives, and they leave us full of love and nuff respect.

The following is something I have long meant to put on the blog...

Late Fragment

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?

 I did.

And what did you want?

To call myself beloved, to feel myself

beloved on the Earth.

Raymond Carver – his epitaph

Big Love to you all. Thank you for You.
Lisbie x