Day 70

There was a veritable feast laid out for the dead, with three liquid offerings and four food offerings—all of my mother’s favorites, because this evening we welcomed my mother home. Her picture now rests beside those of her family and her locket and ring are on the little shelf next to the others. I sigh, basking in the sense of rightness and peace before I close the little shrine’s doors and blow out the candle as I sing her song one more time.

Day 70 is an eternity away from day 1.

In some ways, it doesn’t hurt any less than it did that night, but it hurts different. It’s gentle pain now that brings reassuring tears. She has changed…but not so much that I don’t still know her. The pain is gone from her now…that’s the biggest thing. She finally sees how much my father really does love her. She finally sees how much my brother and I do to be good people and leave a positive legacy in the world. All the criticism and all the pettiness is gone. Her spirit seems somehow bigger than it was, brighter than it was, and far more knowing. She finally has that wisdom she always wanted, that universal knowledge that she always searched for…and true to the woman she was in life, she’s already started using her new found powers as an Ahku to benefit the family.

So…yeah. Closure. It feels nice, it does. :)