Saturday, January 6, 2018

In Memory of Susan Broklawski


People deal with death in different ways.  Some people handle it by meditating.  Others rather not face it.  Those that have difficulty facing it may not call the person who lost someone.  They may not go to the person's funeral or pay respects to the person in their home.  Death! It is an awful word; a final word.  December 22nd was supposed to be a fun day for everyone.  For teachers and students, it was the last day of school.  Vacation awaited us all; a well deserved one.  It appeared to be a normal Friday.  I had difficulty finding a parking spot; which was not unusual for me.  After 20 minutes of searching for one and giving up hope, I finally found one.  Walking toward the school that I work at, I saw my cell phone ringing.  It was my friend who is pregnant.  I was shocked to get a call from her as she never spoke to me before during the wee hours of  the morning.  I thought that maybe she had her baby.  As soon as I said hello, she informed me that my good friend's mother has died.  I told her that it is not true.  It could not be and only thought to myself that it was a mistake.  After-all,  I just saw her a week ago at a holiday party.  She appeared to be fine and had her wits about her.  My friend's mom was never just my friend's mom to me.  She was considered an aunt to me:  Aunt Susan.  To be honest, my friend is not really my friend and has always been more of a sister to me.  She is the type of sister who you know you can argue with, but know she cares for you and enjoys bossing you around and gives you advice that you may not want or need, but most of the time it is helpful advice.  After hearing this dreadful news, I knew in my heart, I did not want to be at work and just wanted to comfort her.  I got permission from school to see her for a while.  I prayed that when I got there, I would find out that it was a false alarm and everything was fine.  Unfortunately, it was true and I still feel in my own mind that it is a mistake; a sadistic falsified error that I have trouble accepting.  At night, in order to cope, I tell myself it is not true.  This is how I can deal with it at this time.  
Susan was the type of person you can tell anything to.  The thing I loved about her is that she never really judged you.  If you were upset with someone, she would be upset with that person along with you.  If you had difficulty with something, she would always listen.  She called me and my other friends, "baby-doll."  Her passion was driven by horses  as she adored them.  The following poem will be forever dedicated to Susan; a wonderful friend, Aunt, mother, human being.

I walked upon the meadow and saw her gazing at me
She appeared tall and thin trotting along the fields of green
Her eyes met mine in her glory
She stood grazing on the meadows
Full of life, full of tranquility.
She screamed out a low, but kind, "Neigh,"
The next thing I knew she galloped away.
She cantered away toward a rainbow that magically appeared in the sky
I knew she would be at peace as I saw her start to fly
Goodbye beautiful stallion as you will be missed
For now and always you will be in eternal bliss.