After months of deliberate procrastination, I finally built up enough courage today to call the cemetery to inquire about the process of selecting a tombstone for our beloved Shahdi. When the lady heard Shahdi's name, she informed me that she knew her. When I asked her how, she answered by telling me that she had become familiar with her name due to the number of people she had directed to her graveside. She said Shahdi must have had a lot of friends. I confirmed her statement by saying that Shahdi was, and still is, loved by many.
After hanging up the phone, I could no longer control the tears that had welled up in my eyes while talking about Shahdi. I was thinking how unfair it was that, of all the objects we could have purchased for our daughter, we had to choose a tombstone - not a new car or dress or phone or whatever else a 21-year-old young lady would like. We have to select a last piece of material object for marking her once joyful and cherished existence in our world. How can a piece of metal or stone capture the essence, the beauty, the intelligence, the personality, the kindness and love of the beautiful girl who once lived among us?
Selecting a tombstone for such a gifted human being is a monumental task. How can an object do justice to a life, short-lived; to dreams, lost; to hearts, broken; and to the pain, relentless and never-ending? Undoubtedly, whatever we choose, will not be worthy of the precious soul whose body is buried underneath.
The appointment is now made to select the permanent marker to the final resting place of our beloved Shahdi.
...May I have the strength to sit through that meeting without breaking down by grief and sorrow as the last time I sat there over fifteen months ago to select her casket.
...May we be able to make a selection which will capture, if possible, even a little bit of Shahdi's humanity, beauty and spirit.
...
How I miss our kind, sweet, pretty girl.....
No comments:
Post a Comment