My Uncle Burt......

This is Burt and Judy....

young and in love...

Maybe 1965..

I thought they were the most beautiful couple in

WORLD...

I was eight...

I am now 52,

and I still think they were the most

glamorous couple in the world....

I idolized them...

Burt died on Sat...

my birthday...

I will never have another birthday that

I don't think of this.....

I am sad,

and yet....

glad that he has been released from

the disease that killed him....

It was wicked..

Burt Batty, 67, civic-minded retired administrator, sailing buff Portland Press Herald

As thru a glass dimly...

apparently,....

we know only in part....

That's what I've read.

I believe it.

I see the world like this photo...

my vision is obscured by obstacles.

Like....my ego, pride, selfishness, fear....

I believe

that when we die

we are given the gift of clear vision.

We see the truth...

about our lives, the people we

have spent time with on this earth,

our actions, their consequences....

and

all of this either

allows us peace....

or torment.

Heaven or Hell.

I hope that my actions

on this earth

allow me peace....

Death......

Well, we just don't know do we?

We don't know when it will come.

David and I went over to a friend's house today to check on him.

No one had heard from him in days, and we wanted to just make sure...

Well, there he was, laying on the kitchen floor, having fallen from his wheelchair.

We saw him from the back window to his living room.

Snow on the ground, dog barking at the door,

too many newspapers on the front stoop, a call to 911,

police, medic, neighbors....

I heard the medic say he had been there for several days.

They assured us that it appeared to be "natural causes",

didn't feel very natural.....

Now we are at our home,

numb....

Poor guy, alone on the floor for days....

makes me sad.