For Aunt NayNay

Any attempt to summarize your life is futile because your life refuses summation.

I have been loving your life so long, that it was not until you had gone that I realized that it was not my own. 

To laugh with you was to be immediately catapulted to summer, or late spring, or Christmas Day. Into a time of fulfilled promise and treasure. 

I remember your 40th birthday, and how bright your smile was. I remember because it was also the moment I realized that you could change. Bringing me to the knowledge that the rest of my world would change too. 

Without my consent or consideration, it would change. Like you, needing no permission, only promising to be there when I opened my eyes from an afternoon nap taken at the foot of your bed.

Your love showed me the sacred power of Sun Goddess and Be Ever Wonderful by EWF. Bad Boy by Luther Vandross is a hymn of celebration. The melodies and rhythms in your voice are where I learned to dance to and make a life for myself. 

So when I am lonely, and longing for music, I will listen for you in these songs. 

The only words that would do your love justice have been spoken by God to you.