There's rosemary, that's for remembrance

There's an episode of Scrubs where the gang attend Carla's mother's funeral. Afterwards, standing around in the hospital lobby in their respectful black, Carla says to them all, "Thank you all for coming, I know you're busy." And they all turn away, fading as they do from black funeral clothes to ordinary hospital scrubs. JD explains, "The toughest part about working in a hospital is that, no matter what else is going on in your life, you have to dive right back into the middle of things."

Well, not just in a hospital. Today I went to Sheila Innes' funeral and the little church was packed with students both current and ex. Some of them paid a tribute with Shakespeare lines--Sheila was a big Shakespeare fan--and when they took their seats again, not one had dry eyes. A guy who had just left the school when I started played a few musical pieces for her. I saw two girls from my year--from my Theatre Studies class--and one said how hard it had been to convince her boss to let her come. She had to leave the reception afterwards to get back to work.

I left, went into town, visited the bank, got some shopping done, came home and had lunch. And now I'm here. And when I'm done writing this post, I'll be opening up the file with my latest story in it--the one due in at the end of the month--and trying to write some hot vampire sex. What I'd like to do is eat lots of food composed mostly of butter and sugar, listen to sad music, cuddle the cats and think some more about how bloody unfair it is that someone so smart, so kind, so enthusiastic, someone with a husband and children and grandchildren who loved her, someone who has touched and inspired students for longer than I've been alive, how bloody unfair it is that she's just not here any more, and that I can't tell her how much I appreciated her.

But life goes on. I wanted Sheila to be proud of me, and I don't think she'd be impressed if I missed a deadline because I just didn't feel like writing. And hey. I'm remembering her, and so is everyone else at that funeral. She goes on.