After praying one day in her little house, in her 89th Year,
she bent her head, weeping gently.
Her son and I looked at each other with wonder.
“I didn’t know it would be so sweet,” Janet said.
The prayer had delighted her,
as all lovely things surprised and delighted her.
She wore a bra outside her shirt for my birthday party
just to get the big giggle going--
pulling us inexorably into as much joy as we could manage.
She would shine laughter into any room of gloomy hearts.
We hovered around her--
a fragrant garden we couldn’t resist.
Working all day and the nighttime too
she readied her house for guests.
There would be coffee and fruit
on a table set with flowers and bits of blue.
There would be laughter.
There would always be delightful, surprising sweetness.
