Care Packages
How long will it be before I forget
what your favorite cookies were?
I don't know what you eat in heaven
but it's probably not meringues,
crispy-crusted, chewy-centered,
vanilla-scented,
lightly toasted on top
like a summer sunburn,
and crumbling at a touch;
I'm sure you don't long
for packages from home
filled with meringues, red licorice,
rice krispy treats made by childish hands,
and peppermints from meals at Pizza Hut,
squirreled away by your dad to put in the box
alongside the letters and drawings
and heapings of family love.
Now, you have everything you need
or ever wanted,
and we're left holding the box
with all the love,
with no one left to send it to.
- Betty Winslow
İOct. 2002
Lisa loved Christmas Meringues and I made them every year for her, sending some to share with her roommates and making more for when she came home on leave. Making them that first year after her death was so hard, but I did it anyway. She would have expected no less. We still make them each year, in her memory. Yum!
