Carmen Martinez passed away this morning after a long fight with cancer.Carmen did not want a funeral service. She wanted her Celebration of Life party to be her farewell. So instead of a service, a memorial picnic for Carmen is being planned sometime this Summer at Cathedral Park in St. Johns. Everyone who knew Carmen will be welcome, so look for a notice here.
We all have things we want to say, I guess. Towards the end, Carmen enjoyed being read to. I tried to write her something wonderful and inspiring, but I couldn't find any better words than this:
somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
by E. E. Cummings
somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands
