Karen’s husband Gary called this week to let me know that she was gone. We became friends in middle school, and her gentle, ever-grateful nature has been a joy for me for fifty years. It hurts so much to never see or talk with her again who has been such a wonderous companion on this journey.
Juniper creek
Every spring break in high school, a group would camp in Ocala National Forest. We’d hike on the Florida Trail, cook over the campfire, swim, play endless games of spoons, and a highlight was always the canoe trip down Juniper Springs Creek. I remember an early morning walk with Karen quietly watching the world wake up.
In nursing school, Karen would fight Hodgkin’s. She was the first friend to face such a devastating illness, and her courage would inspire me only a few years later when I confronted melanoma. When more cancer returned in recent years, she quietly, strongly faced it once again.
Melbourne Beach sunrise
On the beach, at dawn:
four small stones clearly
hugging each other.
How many kinds of love
might there be in the world,
and how many formations might they make . . . .
Mary Oliver, From Swan
Karen loved the beach, and it would be one of the many places she’d walk and pray. She and Gary were blessed with two girls. Amy, who looked so much like the Karen I first met in middle school, became close to my mother when she and Karen would frequently visit her. It was a great joy for Karen to celebrate Amy’s wedding last year, and to care for and play with Mandy’s children. Amy and my dad shared a birthday, and my daughter would share Karen’s. Amazing how branches and roots intertwine.
Live Oak and Resurrection Ferns, Washington Oaks garden
Karen and Gary’s home was built surrounded by Live Oak trees that seem to hug the house on all sides. Karen loved to garden, and was certified as a Florida master gardener. An accomplished photographer, her favorite subject was gardens. She would sometimes comment on my Friday Foto posts, and most frequently with pictures from gardens. She encouraged me to visit Washington Oaks State Park which I finally did in 2019, and the center of garden is this stately oak covered in resurrection ferns.
I introduced her to a special place close to her home. Viera Wetlands is home to much wildlife. Surrounding the wetlands is palmetto scrubland with slash pines rising high above. The day I learned of Karen’s death, I just got an anthology of Native American poetry. The first one I read, written in 1678, may be the oldest published Native poem. It was written by Eleazar as an elegy for a friend, and ends:
The dust holds your body, but upon the earth your name will not end,
renowned in the days and times that will be,
your soul having flown from your limbs, it walks the steep heavenly vault,
deathless, intertwined with immortal winds.
Viera wetlands sunrise