To call myself beloved

I received a sad letter today from Deborah, who lost her younger brother, Tyrone, a beautiful soul. She talked of the shock and the wild, howling wolf of grief trapped in her chest. On Monday, Tyrone will be carried from a beautiful glass chapel, surrounded by trees to ‘Distant Sky’. She attached two quotes, which will be read at Tyrone’s funeral and I wanted to pass these on, as they are so lovely. Deborah, we are with you. Love, Susie.

One of us fell off the boat. Look in our faces, read our eyes as we come ashore. One of us fell off the boat. We’re back. In our homes, you can see that there are times when we hate surviving. There are times when we think how easy to have been him. One wave and gone.

Carrying the Elephant: Memoir of Love and Loss by Michael Rosen.

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.

Late fragment by Raymond Carver.
Picture: Tyrone’s ‘Sad Bunny’ handkerchief