When You Don't Want to Say Goodbye: Tribute to Betty Malone

There are times in our life we don't want to say goodbye. When someone you love has to go home after the holidays to the other side of the country, your son, father, husband, aunt, or mother goes off to war. You don't want to say goodbye. The word itself sounds so final and full of doom, at least it always has to me.

If you, like me, don't want to say the word, then don't. Do what I've always done, say "I'll see you later." This one little sentence is full of hope. It's a promise to see each other again one day. It's the one thing I am confident about, that I will see Betty again. I know in my next life our paths will cross once more. I hope next time she will be my sister or mother.

Betty was a soul filled with light, she had a heart so big you could get lost in it and she was always there for you. She was someone I felt comfortable with right from the start. She was easy to talk to, a quick wit, a great writer and a lover of life. Her start in life, as she wrote in "Say Yes To Happiness", was less than smooth. She proved love really does work wonders and you can overcome anything.

"...let your light so shine that it brightens your corner of the universe."

She did that and so much more. Betty's article, "Time to Turn Over a New Leaf", struck me as eerily prophetic.

She wrote, "I find myself in the autumn of my life this year, perhaps about 2/3 to ¾ of the way to the end. The change is curious, scary and hopeful. I see the inevitable, but it no longer frightens me. Instead I find myself with new energy, new vision and new resolutions."

The saying, only the good die young has never been more true than right now.

She showed us more of her life in "Secret Anniversaries of the Heart. " I had never thought so many of life's moments are really anniversaries of sorts.

Betty, though I never met you face to face, you touched my life and I feel privileged to have known you. You inspired many and will continue to do so. Your light and spirit live on in your words, your children and grandchildren. I choose not to say goodbye to you. I choose to say, see you later Betty! I'm giving you an Irish send off, full of remembering, laughter and bright smiles.

The words in this poem are for us, the ones left behind. These are words that will be spoken for me when the time comes and I move on.

Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there... I do not sleep.
I am the thousand winds that blow...
I am the diamond glints on snow...
I am the sunlight on ripened grain...
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you waken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of gentle birds in circling flight...
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry-
I am not there... I did not die...

-Mary E. Frye