"Just a minute," said a voice

My mom, Sally Fae Porter Haye, died peacefully Tuesday morning, June 30. Her husband Lee was with her, holding her hand. A few days before she died, she told the nurse that she had dreamed about two angels who came to tell her that they had a place ready for her.

My mother believed in angels and fairies and leprechauns. She could reason with bees, explaining to them, "We're trying to eat our lunch and if you just go away until we are finished, we'll leave some behind for you." (and they usually did!) She planted geraniums (red) and delphiniums (blue) in her garden because of A.A. Milne's poem, "The Dormouse and the Doctor." She loved Winnie the Pooh, Wind in the Willows, Rabbit Hill, and the Beatrix Potter stories.

This poem is for her:

“Just a minute,” said a voice…

“Just a minute,” said a voice in the weeds.
So I stood still
in the day’s exquisite early morning light
and so I didn’t crush with my great feet
any small or unusual thing just happening to pass by
where I was passing byon my way to the blueberry fields,
and maybe it was the toad
and maybe it was the June beetle
and maybe it was the pink and tender worm
who does his work without limbs or eyes
and does it well
or maybe it was the walking stick, still frail
and walking humbly by, looking for a tree,
or maybe, like Blake’s wondrous meeting, it was
the elves, carrying one of their own
on a rose-petal coffin away, awayinto the deep grasses. After awhile
the quaintest voice said, “Thank you.” And then there was silence.
For the rest, I would keep you wondering.

~Mary Oliver