Good Night, Sleep Tight

...and may Erika's dear husband rest in peace. He was only 44 and they have two young children. Erika is baby sister to my close girlhood friend Irene. We were so charmed when she was born. 

I drove back to Dumont--to my mother church, Saint Mary's--for the funeral Mass today. The church loomed larger than I'd remembered but the rest of the town and the houses seemed smaller.

For memory's sake, I drove past the Cape Cod-style house where I grew up [the house Dad kept for about 50 years] and the newer ranch where Irene lived on White Beeches Drive--and 11 houses down Bedford Road from my house to the one my beloved Aunt Gloria and Uncle Jim and my cousins Maria, Jimmy, Annie, Cathy and Joseph called home.

Life marches on. Erika is in my heart and prayers. I don't pretend to understand these heart-wrenching losses. 

Good night.