Mary's sunset

Mary Travers has died after fighting leukemia for the last two years. There are tributes to her springing up all over youtube and this one, created by paultinsel, appealed to me.

Wednesday afternoon I had a really intense massage and when Mike and I met back at the house he agreed that Mexican food sounded good so we went to a restaurant in downtown Silverton that makes the best spinach enchiladas from the vegetarian portion of the menu. A surprise rain had hit our area around 4:30 p.m., but had stopped by the time we were seated in the front of El Toro by the windows. Over the top of a very old but newly renovated building on the corner I watched the sky change toward the coast range to the most beautiful blond color, not a common setting-sun shade around here.

While Mike was paying the bill up front I was looking at the various advertisements and etceteras around the cash register. One of those old stand-up boards with slots sliced into it just the perfect size for a quarter was up close, right in my face. I thought how frequently this kind of charitable appeal was once used and how rarely I see it anymore, as it seems more likely that someone would help themselves to the quarters donated on the board than to slide a quarter into one of the many empty slots. But I decided to pay attention to what organization still uses this and I read, below the black & white photo of a darling little girl, that these paltry donations were for an organization fighting Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Myeloma. I went to a silent place inside and thought a moment about my past love, Michael, who died of lymphoma in 2002........I thought I must make a donation to the group online. Now, as I search online to find a link to the organization I realize that there are two major organizations involved in research to fight blood cancer, and I'm not sure which one was represented by the restaurant appeal. They are The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (the oldest at 60 years) and Leukemia Research Foundation.

We drove home marveling together about the beauty of that sky. I described it as creamy. Before we made the eastward-facing right turn toward our neighborhood the pale yellow color drew me in. Lovely, memorable, unique, a blending of delicacy and dynamism, not splashy-loud but tonight a profoundly still sky.

It was Mary's sunset.

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