There you are....

The day we laid you to rest I thought I'd never see you again. Well, not until my own day of rest came.

But I was wrong.

I saw you just now; there, in the mirror. I saw you in the features that have become more and more like yours. I saw you in the silver highlights that I usually keep covered, but have now become prominent through my own neglect.

I hear you when I greet my children...those you help me raise and those you never met. "Hi, baby!" I say, and I hear your voice coming through.

I feel you every time I offer a warm and loving hug to someone who just needs to know someone cares.

I hear you in the sternness of my rebuke, in the warmth of my comfort, and in the logic of my counsel.

I feel you when a small child falls asleep on my lap, or comes to me in need of mending.

And when life gets hard and I want to quit, I hear your voice and see that face...yes, THAT face. The one you left me. The one that takes no nonsense. The one that says, "You can't quit now."

Yes, I still see you. In my daughters, in my grandchildren, and in those quiet moments when I look intently at myself.

And I smile....because seeing you there helps me not miss you quite so much.