A year ago today, JVA checked out of 'this giant, raucous hotel'

"…[O]ne hits at some point in middle age the Great Reversal, where we see clearly that the way ahead is shorter than the way behind, and that it is only luck or chance that we are still eating, talking, taking out the trash and doing the laundry as if nothing particular were happening. This realization creates a revolution in the brain. One sees that life really is an incessant conversation between the living and the dead – and what one writer called 'the tyranny of the living,' 'the small, arrogant oligarchy of those who happen to be walking around' is a shortsighted view. Nothing we touch, think, feel, or love is other than a gift from those who came before us, passing on literature, painting, domesticated cats, architecture, silver spoons, flush toilets, witty sayings, lullabies, chocolate éclairs, systems of government, habits of kindness before they, too, close the door of their room and, one by one, check out of this giant, raucous hotel." -Cynthia Haven

When the garden was young: Jerry Araos, wife Melen and their youngest children Mira and Julian. They are flanked by SV and Nieves Epistola, their backs turned and looking like angelic sentinels.

We'll be looking at the moon, and we'll be seeing you. Thank you for the gift of your life that remains evergreen in our hearts and minds. Till we meet again, oh, Little Prince! Labyu!