Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Oooh, my dear, dear Uncle Gene. Life will be so different without your beautiful playmate. The woman who would literally follow you anywhere, – and did! How lucky YOU were, that she was my Mum’s best friend (Patt Goss Simmons, until you cleverly made them Sisters-in-Law! ) How lucky we ALL were that you found her! So that WE all got to be cousins, and grow up with you both!
What an example she set for us all. So strong. So unrelentingly brave, about simply everything, all these years. Things we were too young to even imagine. So many things. Always artistic. Able to see beauty in everything, everywhere. Able to make anywhere a beloved “Home Sweet Home”, when she painted it that way with her love for her family. You, Uncle Gene, were her whole life, along with my cousins. Wherever you all were!
Oh, Goss Cousins of mine, my heart is simply breaking for you. Having to let your Mother go… dear God, what pain. I’m in FL, but my thoughts are right there with you, especially today. I’m so sad for you all. You’ve suffered so much loss.
I cannot get any of your faces out of my mind for a moment today. Today I feel I am literally standing right there with you, in my heart. That tie, that binds us somehow, does not seem to break anywhere between heaven and earth. Somehow, somewhere, I see us all… well, only the 14 of us, just the Simmons and Goss cousins right then (Really – ONLY – 14 of the 28 cousins!?!). All still kids – me holding Jimmy’s hand, Sherry holding Gene Jr.’s., all of us scrubbed up and paired off and falling right in line down the group, marching along on a dark pine forest path. I see our bright and shining faces all the way down the line, and midway – as always – your towheaded sister Kathy’s sweet face, just beaming, literally lighting the way. As I know it is doing, sure as a beacon, for your Mom today. I’m so sorry. It has to be so terribly hard for you all to even try to be thankful for that…
But, even I know, your Mom would tell you not to despair, to “Look on the Bright Side!”
Because now, she’s up there! She’s got my trio of girl cousins ready to help, and with their help she is going to paint your whole world with her loving, heavenly paint brush in such beautiful colors, that none of you – all this crazy extended family, whether Goss, Cody or Simmons – will ever doubt that she is up there watching, tweaking, composing and still coloring things a different way, loving you all.
Still perfecting her most beautiful Masterpiece in every way she can. Her beloved family.
With love and best wishes to you all, always –
Treza and Irv Ager
(Aunt Pat’s niece “Terry”, eldest of Gene’s sister Patt (Goss) and Bob Simmons)
