Celebrating my Mother's Life

My thanks to all who have sent my family and me your condolences and also to those who have generously contributed to the nursing scholarship in her name. Below is from the ceremony celebrating her life:

***

Welcome, Spring - by Ann J. Sam

Winter days have slowly gone
Leaving the snows behind,
The blustering cold is done
And signs of Spring I find;

The robins, hopping, chirping
Boldly facing the chill Of the new
Spring days lurking
With a touch of winter still;

But-bright is the sun shining
Blue are the skies above,
Flowers are bravely blooming
Giving Spring a gentle shove;

Soon the grasses will be green
And the trees with their new leaves,
These signs of Spring will be seen
For winter, we do not grieve;

So, blow gently the sighing winds
Come softly the soothing rains,
Upon the earth you will descend
Bringing welcome to Spring again.

***

My mother, Ann Joan Kon Sam, died on March 17, 2010, after a short illness.

In her time on this planet, she gave her children life and more than life. She gave us a love for life, a respect for life, the wisdom to celebrate life. She gave us a love for those things that enhance and celebrate life: art, music, poetry, reading, writing. She gave us a love for nature and animals, a desire to protect and preserve and value nature and all life.

She gave us a love for people, a deep respect for them, and a need to live a life of service above ourselves. She gave us the joy to laugh, to be playful, to have a healthy sense of humor.She gave us a love for good food, for cooking, for gardening, for food as a way to bring friends and family together. She gave us the courage to try new things, to recover from falls, to take responsibility, to be adult, to journey out, to learn, to grow, to pioneer.

She was the first in her family to complete high school, to get a professional job through her nursing education. We were among the first to graduate from college, to get advanced degrees, to become teachers ourselves.

She did not have the most loving of-parents, nor did she have a secure childhood. She gave us a loving parent and a secure childhood, and taught us to be parents and give the same to our children. In her youth, she remembered those few who were kind and generous, and she become kind and generous, and she expected that we would be kind and generous.

Above all, she loved. With passion and commitment she loved. With forgiveness and gratitude she loved. With humor and generosity she loved. So she taught us to live our lives with love, with an ethic of service, with playfulness and with commitment and with faith. With Meister Eckhart she would agree, "If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough."

We say, Thank you mom, for the gift of life and how to live it, and most of all for the gift of you.

***

Hands - by David A. Sam
(For my Mother, Ann Joan Sam)

Hands, wonderful tools,
full of grasping, plucking,
strumming, stroking,
full of fists,
made for numbering,
made for thumbing.

Like all wonders, hands must
wither, becoming sculpture
of arthritis, blue-veined
deltas of decay.

My mother's hands once
held me, fed me,
cleaned me from the mess
of diapers, soothed and bound
my wounds and bruises.

My mother's hands
held a book, stroked
a punning pen, caressed
the life around her,

pale transparent flesh
over the green/blue tributaries
of her history.

***

Near her end, she said, "I guess it's the end of the story.... Time to write another story." She wrote an amazing story with her life. We will miss her as she goes on to write your next story.

To honor her courageous life, we have set up a scholarship in her name. Its purpose will be to help those who want to become nurses but, like her, find finances a barrier.

Contributions may be made to:

The Ann J. Sam RN Scholarship for Nursing
Germanna Community College Educational Foundation
2130 Germanna Highway
Locust Grove, Va. 22508.