Monday, November 20, 2017
Remembering Diane
Thank you for looking after Diane
For remembering her at
St. Mary’s in Endicott
For putting her to rest at Mt. St. Mary’s.
Her parents, I think, are there,
A grandfather, too.
Not far from where I rode with Dottie
On the jump-seat of a limousine to put Dottie’s mother to rest.
I first remember Diane as a chuckling dark-haired baby
Her life stretched out
Full of promise
A joy to Dottie and Bill and Grandma Reger
Cramped as they were into a tiny upstairs apartment on Galway Avenue.
An infant friend upstairs for me.
This was before Baldwin
Before Bobby and Richard
Before Louise’s memory had begun to fail
Before the young family set out to the new post-war house
Bill so freshly out of the service.
This was before surgeries and seizures.
Before medicines and anxieties.
Before W.W. Norton.
Before.
