The marque sporting event in Nashville would feature an NHL battle between our Predators & the Winnipeg Jets.
Also, my first photography show in 36 years would open at the celebrated Dane Carder Studio.
My family had been expecting a different kind of event for months. But, when the phone call came at 7:10 a.m. it carried news no one can schedule.
My mom's final moments passed softly. As my younger sister stood by her side reciting the names of loved ones mom sighed & slipped away.
Yes, just a sigh, not a cinematic gasp. She always hated melodrama.
David Whyte writes that "Heartbreak…is the natural outcome of caring for people…of holding in our affections those who inevitably move beyond our line of sight…."
He says that, "We use the word "heartbreak" as if it only occurs when things have gone wrong…But heartbreak may be the very essence of being human…"
Heartbreak is so certain that Whyte thinks we might as well befriend her as a teaching companion even when her hand clinches into a fist.
Mom never wanted to cause anyone heartbreak – not even her college suitor who knelt to beg, unsuccessfully, for her hand in marriage. So she tried to soften our inevitable heartbreak with a gentle ending.
She left life like an elegant guest – quietly slipping out the side door, her pink gown flowing, the scent of her beloved gardenias perfuming her wake. And the very sweetness of her departure broke my heart.
-Erie Chapman
Photograph by Erie
Journal of Sacred Work 
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