For most of my life I have been taught and have taken to heart the greatest of all lessons – that our connections to eachother make up the fabric of our lives and more importantly, our souls. The influential adults in my life may have never said those specific words when they were pushing and prodding me but the whispering was constant and permeated every decision that I made. Even when I thought that I was not paying attention the visuals were always there. As children we were the lucky ones because our world consisted of a neighborhood of thoughtful and attentive people. The community that fostered us into adulthood placed sturdy boundaries on us that left us just enough rope to challenge our every move. The people … the hundreds of them who filled our millions of moments of transitions remain vivid memories of a time that we would all willingly travel back to if given the opportunity.

The blessing and curse of feeling deeply and being raised to communicate effectively is that in the end we discover our own strengths and weaknesses. We eventually start to believe that those who have contributed to our mind and spirit were placed in our path by fate (destiny, providence, predestination, karma, God’s will.) Sometimes it seemed futile and even agonizing to open ourselves up and be vulnerable to others because complications always entered in. Questionable motives, jealousy, fear, arguments, hurt, greed, etc. threaten the best of us and often do irreparable damage to what should be the most important relationships in our lives. After all, it’s nearly impossible to totally brush off the links that have shaped us. In the end we grow to understand that sooner or later we will be forced to face the bittersweet goodbyes with a slight wave, a forced smile and tearful thoughts of gratitude and relief. From now on conversations will forever be one sided and generally mumbled or spoken in dreams.

Everyone has special people in their life. Some are closely tied to events; some are the last survivor of better times and the joy that sparked them. It’s difficult to put into words how important and how intricate the journey is when the travels down that long and winding road come to an end. Intellectually we all know that the time will come when all options are exhausted and every effort to hang on will loosen our grip, but the break is inevitably painful. It’s during those times that all earthly desires and experiences evaporate into a plume of memories that are securely planted in all the lives forever touched.

The final farewell filled with rituals and tradition does not hold a candle to the light that was a beacon in good times and bad … the last of her generational connection to our childhood world. How does one sum up the menagerie of memories except to say that the intricate thread so carefully woven over the decades remains in- tact and forever binding.

— Karen Balice-­Gregory is a trustee of the Ionia Public Schools Board of Education and can be contacted at kgregory@ioniaschools.org or c/o Ionia Sentinel-Standard, 114 N. Depot St., Ionia, MI 48846.