Today would have been Mary Ruth’s 65th birthday. Over the years, I have written much about my sister. On this day, she died from complications due to Crohn’s disease. In her brief 42 years, she lived life as fully as she could given the limitations that her disease placed on her. She traveled all over the world. She assisted many a cardiac patient as an occupation therapist. I have been thinking over these past three years that perhaps her death in 1997 spared her from the horrible state into which this nation has sunk. Given the state of her health, she would not have lived long in this world infected by Covid-19.
Dad and Mary Ruth a couple of years before she died.
The song that I post is one I composed for her on her birthday several years before she died. The handwritten music was four pages long. When I sought to find the song later to transcribe it digitally, I found pages 1,3 and 4, but not the second page. I was crestfallen. However, in the same tote in which I stored much of my handwritten music, I found a cassette tape with the song on it. In listening to the cassette recording, I was able to reconstruct the missing page of music.
My dear sister, Mary. I know that you have long fulfilled in your life the peace for which we all seek. Dear sister, Aunt Dee to my children, continue to pray for me, for our family, and for our nation. Till that time, Mary, until I meet you again in person, you remain in my memory and in my prayers.
