A Most Solemn Moment

After my father’s funeral

Friends and family gathered at his modest home on the bay

He had lived there over forty years

I placed his urn on the lowest step of the dock

So, those who wished to, could say a final goodbye

I went first, and using Daddy’s favorite coffee cup, I scooped up a mug of him

And poured him over the place we had put my mother a few years before

Several others took their turn

And then it was my cousin John’s turn

He reached into the urn and captured my father’s heart in his hand

As the ashes spilled slowly through his fingers, the breeze carried them gently to the water below

He was likely remembering every laugh, and joke, and every drink that they had ever shared

Up until that moment

I never realized how close they were