By SUSAN DROMEY HEETER, Joyful Musings
Today I muse joyfully on a beautiful life. I muse joyfully on a picture taken just as this beautiful life exited this world. I took this shot down at the south shore of Massachusetts on Thanksgiving Day just as my friend, Lisa, passed on up north in New Hampshire..
The sun sets in the picture, the sky beautiful with blues and oranges. Lisa epitomized beauty as well as the comfort of an Adirondack chair. Her skin turned so beautifully tan in the summer, her smile so radiant and fun. She pulled her hair back, she never looked anything but gorgeous, inside and out. She was the beauty of a sunset.
During the height of covid, I would see Lisa in the cemetery in the early mornings. We’d both be out before the sun rose, in the cold winter air, moving and walking, embracing the silence of both early mornings and graves. But Lisa was the bright spot, we’d be laughing next to her parents’ tombstones, she’d keep them brushed off and clean, always tending them during her early morning jaunt.
Lisa was brave and honest and funny. She made me laugh like no other – her name in my phone is “Lisa Liver Spots” as there was a story of her denial with a disease she learned to not only to live with but to thrive with. Cancer was another story. Alas, no matter what, Lisa lived a beautiful life as a beautiful person.
I’ll miss her. But I know I’ll feel her as I sit comfortably in an Adirondack chair, and I know every sunset will have her image in the sky, over the waves, over the clouds. Live on, Lisa, liver spots and all. On Thanksgiving Day, you were the gratitude, the sun, the moon and the joy. Thank you for living a beautiful life.
Susan Dromey Heeter is a writer from Dover who recently let her hair go au natural white. Writing has been her passion since her English majoring days at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Dromey Heeter has lived in The Netherlands, Alaska and currently basks in all things New England, including the frigid winters. An avid swimmer, Dromey Heeter’s great passion is to bring back body surfing as most children have no idea how to ride waves without ridiculous boogie boards.