In Memory of Ethel Kennedy

Peter, seeing the soul reservedly and elegantly stepping forward, focused and accepting, overrode the check-in process to mark it complete, nodded, and opened the gates. They were all there, and what surprised the soul most was the feeling that none of them had ever left - that it was undeniably true we carry our loved ones with us somehow, that we belong to each other at the deepest possible level (although separated by a clumsy division of worlds, seen and unseen). The many years turned to nothing in an instant and the wait, blessedly over, resolved into a feeling a belonging the soul could not quite find the words to explain. "Did we all make it?" the soul asked quietly. "I can imagine some of us were right on the line (and in this, it included itself)." They laughed (the eyes the same, the grins the same) and reached for the soul as its knees weakened in the walking towards (which, in some cases (Peter noted), is the very first reaction to bliss).