I awoke to find my mother had gone already to the home you’ve just left behind.  She had a list of things she intended to fetch before the home is dismantled, parceled and relegated to memories.  I took the lima bean green tea pot from the windowsill, that night I was there and I couldn’t sleep.  I wrapped it in my night shirt and tucked it in my bag.  By that time, though, I’d noticed things had already been rifled through, boxed, and lost to the world.  What was it like to spend your last days in a home that had already begun to breakdown?  Did you really need a literal reminder that you were moving on?

I called my mom and asked for a piece of your jewelry I’d admired since I was a child.  It was nothing special, nothing expensive, just smart:  a string of black and white micro-beads in a candy cane pattern.  I breathed a sigh of relief when she called to tell me it was there.  When she returned and handed it to me, I was overwhelmed by the scent of roses and I shivered.  I understand ghosts smell like roses.  But I know you were fond of having little parfum packages tucked in your dresser drawers.

I’m sad now.  I claim we were never close and yet I begin to recall the minutest of details, your subtlest idiosyncrasies and every home you’ve lived in that I’ve ever known.  I remember in great detail the floor plans, the décor, and the smells distinct to each.  I remember the constants:  the bread machines, the afghans, the stockings hung to dry in the bathroom, the blaring televisions playing murder mysteries and you.  And now, as I sit weeping, I can’t think of single thing more finite than death, an event lonelier than dying, or an emblem more poignant than an empty home.