In Loving Memory of Mamma/Nonna - Josh Groban You're Still You

Maria Pia D’Aversa-Di Clemente
September 24, 1934 – September 23, 2023
She left us suddenly one day before her 89th birthday.

I wade into the gentle river current. It's shallow here. Easy to keep my balance. The cool water laps at my bare feet. I feel refreshed. At peace.

I smile as I scan the shore beyond. Massive trees rise up from the primeval forest floor kept in perpetual shadow, denied the life-giving light that they keep selfishly to themselves. A bitter debris covers the ground, left there to gather from the unfailing cycle of the seasons. Winter’s slumber. Spring’s promise. Summer’s dance of life. The beckoning of Fall’s dénouement.

I think I’ll linger here a little longer, listening to the water trickle by. The wind exhaling carelessly against my bare skin.

My eyes turn upwards. The sky is crystal blue. A shimmering azure I don't recall ever seeing before. It's the blue of the angels. Vast. Deep. Welcoming.

I want to live in this moment forever. In this place of calm and light. I belong here.

My eyes dart furtively towards the Sun and shut tight. The display of heavenly grace vanishes in an explosion of razor-sharp light. This blinding power, impossible to comprehend, wants to crush me under the divine might of its Creator.

My eyes open again. I look down at the current’s delicate flow. It is then that I realize the river has changed. It changed the moment I stepped into it. The water, carried away by an impalpable energy, will never return. And in that same moment of revelation, I realize that I have changed. That life will never be the same again.

The river will continue to surge. It will struggle against boulders and rocks along its way. Even the shore will change, becoming unfamiliar, with each tick of the clock. But it will move on relentlessly as the eons slip away. And Mamma’s love -- Nonna’s love -- will accompany us along every twisting bend and raging rapid.

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