Thank you all for your kind characterization of my beloved late husband, Sionn. He always put a bright face on things even if inside he was torn apart. Sionn did not have an easy life. Some of you know whereof I write. Besides the suffering common to both of us, Sionn bore a personal, private burden few ever saw. I caught glimpses of it from time to time. Then there were the health issues (spastic diaphragm, irritable bowel sydrome, hypertension and high cholesterol woes, perennial stress mostly from the idiocies of our State Legislators and the killer travel regime.
Despite all that, my beloved soldiered on in many arenas, mostly as a peace maker, an architect of consensus (which is sometimes nigh to impossible in engineering standards circles across many cultural paradigms. Sionnsar was the quick witted, kind, generous and compassionate soul many looked to for advice, solace and understanding. The only person he shorted was himself. Nag and cajole as I did (too often it seems) he didn’t follow my suggestions.
Ultimately he fell under the load, like the sculpture in Rhodin’s garden titled “Fallen Caryatid.” He took a stunning photograph of it on his last trip through Paris in mid May. I wish I had been more in tune with his failing heart. Mine now fails from missing him.
UTers are my family now. Thank God for Free Republic.
Jubal Harshaw's favorite art piece, according to Robert Heinlein in "Stranger in a Strange Land".
If you haven't read that book, you should. It's interesting from a number of aspects, and filled with love and tenderness; an odd gift from a similarly suffering curmudgeon.
Didn’t have the pleasure of knowing Sionnsar, but wish I had.
Everyone spoke so highly of him....
We all loved Sionn. And he spoke so highly of you, in his posts and FReepmail. You were, truly, his other half. He seemed to function much better when you were by hhis side. He said so!
And in loving him, we love you as well. We are all here to help ease your burden of grief.
*hugs*
Yes, I know. You either. Thank God you had each other through the trials He chose to put you both through.
I suffer from a chemical imbalance which causes depression, and a few times over the years I reached out to him over it.
He was always, as you said, the quick witted, kind, generous and compassionate soul many (me included) looked to for advice, solace and understanding.
You betcha we're family, LoM, and like families, you're stuck with us whether you want us or not. :-)
Maybe I shouldn't be so forward, but my impression is that you used to think that we were Sionn’s friends, but now, I hope you do realize that during all the time we spent with Sionn, he made you and the girls a part of our family.
You are not, and never were, a stranger.
Love and hugs!