In the Sky. The Last Sunset of 2011.

Thank you all for the comments and condolences you left on my post about my dad's passing. A week has gone by already and while there's a certain peace and acceptance in my heart that I'm grateful for, it shares space with a great amount of grief. My dad's life was relatively simple perhaps, but he seemed to enjoy it immensely and as I went through my photo albums searching for his face, I realized that he wore a smile in every one of them.

In losing my dad I think J and I are both feeling, among other more personal losses, the loss of our connection to the traditional (and disappearing) New England French Canadian culture that he epitomized. This was always the aspect of my lineage I felt the most connected to. In fact, my brother chose this French song, J'irai la voir un jour for the communion meditation at the funeral, and though the words descended from the choir loft like tears, I had to give the eulogy immediately following it and blocked out its beauty at the time.

But when I hear it now you might as well stab a knife in my heart. 

In English:

I'll see her one day
In the Sky, in the Garden
Yes I will see Mary
My joy and my love

In the Sky, in the Sky, in the Sky
I'll see her one day

I'll see her one day
I'll join the angels
To sing her praises
And form her court

I'll see her one day
This so beautiful Virgin
Soon I'll be near her
To say my love

In the Sky, in the Sky, in the Sky
I'll see her one day

I'll see her one day
I'll go near her tomb
To welcome the dove
For the eternal stay

I'll see her one day
I'll go away from earth
To the heart of my mother
To rest with no return

In the Sky, in the Sky, in the Sky
I'll see her one day

I'll see her one day.