By Ruby Smith – Victoria, B.C.
I sit in my back yard and enjoy all the things around me. All the beautiful flowers, the fruit trees, the apples and blueberries. How Elmer loved those trees.
It’s not an easy thing to sit in my back yard now. Oh, there is nothing wrong with my yard. What makes it hard is the fact that it was Elmer’s favorite spot to relax and enjoy.
He would go there after working in the yard. I would join him and we would enjoy a glass of iced tea together, oh so refreshing on a hot day. He would look around and say, “isn’t this a beautiful spot? You couldn’t ask for anything more.”
At the time you couldn’t. We had every thing we wanted or needed, or so we thought. We had family, good friends, and each other. What more could you ask for?
But it’s not the same anymore. It’s still beautiful, but now all I can do is reflect on the life we had together – a life I can’t enjoy anymore because death has taken my beloved friend away from me.
Oh, I still have my children, and how thankful I am for that, my family, and good friends…but it’s not the same. Now, I can only reflect on the life we had together.
Covid-19 changed our world – it isolated us, but at the same time, it also made us closer. The pandemic brought out the worst in some people, but fortunately, it also brought out the best in the majority. It also made us reminisce about our past and think hopefully of better days ahead.
It brought to mind people we miss, people we have lost, ones who will ever be in our thoughts. One of those memories is of my late husband, Elmer Smith, who passed in 1998 at the young age of 63. This memory is for him.
