by Kevin Burton I bury my mother today. Can you imagine such a thing? Life is a coin flip, with love on one side and pain on the other. Pain, in some measure, is the residue of love. Live. Love. Toss the coin. Do it. “There’s a sad day coming, and …
Category Archives: grief
My Friend, “Prepaid” Is The Only Way To Go
by Kevin Burton I called the cemetery where my mother will be buried next week and told the clerk that the time had come. The clerk was actually en route to work. She said she would look up our family’s records once she got there, and call me back. “Everything is paid …
Continue reading “My Friend, “Prepaid” Is The Only Way To Go”
Bye For Now, Evelyn Marie, Bye For Now
by Kevin Burton Mom started it. I followed suit right away. We both understood though we never discussed it. Somewhere, maybe six or seven years ago, we began ending a phone conversation or one of my visits to her at assisted living or in the nursing home with “bye for now!” We’ll …
Good Advice: Hold Lightly To Earthly Things
by Kevin Burton James called your life and mine “a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14b NKJV). Even those with a complete lack of discernment and self-awareness, if they would pause long enough to just do the math of life, I think would still come to …
Continue reading “Good Advice: Hold Lightly To Earthly Things”
No Tears In Heaven, No End To Tears On Earth
by Kevin Burton The former things. The former things. May they soon become former. There is a song, “The Tabernacle of God,” released in 1979 by Cynthia Clawson. It has always been a favorite of mine, but these days it leaps up and grabs me. My mother is in hospice care now. …
Continue reading “No Tears In Heaven, No End To Tears On Earth”
Pilot On Holly’s Plane Crash Was Not Qualified
by Kevin Burton The 21-year-old pilot of the plane that crashed on this day in 1959, taking the lives of three famous young musicians was not qualified for the flight, according to published accounts. The crash, which took the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) has been …
Continue reading “Pilot On Holly’s Plane Crash Was Not Qualified”
Farewell To The Meathead, Closing Credits
by Kevin Burton I’m supposed to be good with words, but sometimes there just aren’t any. I’m having trouble expressing my distress at the violent death of Actor/Director Rob Reiner. Reiner and his wife Michele were found dead Sunday and their son Nick is now facing two counts of murder. Sadness, disbelief, anger, …
Continue reading “Farewell To The Meathead, Closing Credits”
How Deep Is Your Love?, Good Question
by Kevin Burton My sister and I had one last shared musical moment, in the days before her death Aug. 25 of last year. We had thousands of them over half a century together. What I wouldn’t give to have a few more of them now. The final one came last August, …
Hard Lessons In Death And Unforgiveness
by Kevin Burton This bit of Burton family lore started small, sprung up unexpected. We had a maid named Mrs. Long. This was before the basement at my father’s house in Yellow Springs, Ohio was finished, when you could still practice hockey on roller skates and shoot a plastic puck into a 4-by-6 …
Catsongs: Cat’s In The Cradle, Harry Chapin
by Kevin Burton (Catsongs is a series on Page 7 to honor the memory of my late sister Pat by looking at our two shared passions, cats and music.) For this series, I am featuring songs with cats in the title, or perhaps the lyrics. Unfortunately “Cat’s in the Cradle” is the obvious choice …
Continue reading “Catsongs: Cat’s In The Cradle, Harry Chapin”
Page 7 