Susan T. Creations

We have come to another season of change in our lives, an ending that leaves a huge hole. A hole that will need to be filled somehow. For so many years Shirely has been a mainstay for us, the anchor that kept us strong even as she began losing strength herself. When I was going through her things a month ago, I came across a piece of writing, an excerpt from a letter my brother Ted wrote in 1972. It’s advice that I know will help keep me focused on the future and not the past, on what I continue to gain instead of what I have lost, on what I can give instead of what I am no longer receiving. It’s the best advice on how to embrace endings and change that I have ever come across. I hope it gives us all a sense of peace and direction.

“The end is always a beginning. If an end became an end, you are not only refuting the nature of man, but you are also subjecting man to be dominated by history, which has no right to be the domineering fact. Man can never be an end in himself, he must be the beginning for another person.” (Edward Latchford Tuttle, Jr., 1972)

Goodbye for a while, Mom. And rest in the assurance that we who remain will continue to be the beginning for everyone we meet. See you soon.