The Next Stage of Our Lives

Our favorite, perennial octogenarians contemplate life and death and life... 

"Thanks so much for calling, Pastor Laura. Yes, Dawn and I will be able to take care of the coffee service after the funeral. Yes, it’s very sad.

“Yes, I knew Robert pretty well. We were both members of the Monday Bible Study/Lunch group for years...

"Uh-huh, I’ll call Dawn and Jackie and they’ll get the telephone tree started. Alright. Yes, I’ll remember that he’s in a better place. Good bye Pastor Laura.”

Rose hung up the kitchen wall phone with the 25-foot tangled cord and thought for the umpteenth time that she must get this cord replaced. She absentmindedly turned to the fridge to get a glass of iced tea. While she poured the reviving liquid into her tall daisy glass, she thought of how active Robert was and how he was heading up the program to ‘Save the Lighthouse.’ He even did the lighthouse tours. Who will do that important work now?

Tears filled her eyes as she brought the glass to her lips. She knew she had to call Dawn, but didn’t want to upset her with the voice of someone who’s been crying, so she opened the back door and went to the garden to see if any early buds were on the trees. Being outdoors always helped to turn aside sadness.

A few minutes later Dawn was at the garden gate panting after her jog up the back alley. “Rose, Rose, did you hear about Robert?” Dawn asked with a gasp. Rose nodded and opened the gate for Dawn. The women hugged.

“Pastor Laura asked me to get the word out.” Rose said while dabbing at her eyes. “Well, she must have asked Hazel to do the same thing because she called me about a half hour ago.”

Dawn countered, “It’s a large congregation and it takes several people to get the phone tree started. I just wanted to see you, Rose, and cry on your shoulder because we lost such a good friend.”

The sky started to cloud over, and the light dimmed. Rose looked at Dawn and asked with a philosophical tone to her voice, “Dawnie, do you think this is the next stage of our lives? The one where we start saying goodbye to good friends and family and wondering when it will be our turn?”

She bent her head to fully take in this thought and leaned on the lattice fence.

“You know Rose, intellectually I understand that no one gets out of life alive, but I haven’t spent much time preparing for death,” whispered Dawn.

“Whoa there girl! Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. We’re still in the process of living. And might I say that we’re doing a pretty good job of it. We’ve got grandchildren and great-grands. We’ve got marriages to witness, graduations to attend and many, many jumble sales to organize,” said Rose with a smile. “Let’s just put on the best darn coffee hour for our dear Robert’s memorial service and celebrate his life by going on and living our lives.”

Thursday came with glorious sun. What a perfect day, thought Rose. Robert would have been at the lighthouse on a day like this. As the girls set the thick, white coffee cups in rows, and Pat and Hazel worked in the kitchen, the congregants filed into Greenlake church.

Pastor Laura came to the gathering room in her most beautiful, celebratory robes and complimented the girls on how lovely everything looked.

The flowers were absolutely perfect, the Pastor said. Rose smiled and stepped next to Dawn for support to keep from crying. “Well Pastor, we designed this coffee service as a celebration for Robert. He would have loved the lighthouse decorations.”

“It's the best tribute we can give to Robert,” Pastor Laura announced. “The service will include a slide show of his lighthouse tours...just the kind of service Robert would have wanted!”

The girls smiled as Pat and Hazel came out of the kitchen to ask the Pastor a couple of questions about the next jumble sale…and life goes on. 

Diana Couture's series, The Ongoing, Life-Affirming Adventures of Rose and Dawn, was inspired by Diana Couture’s aunt and her aunt’s best friend. This colorful column was born when she set about telling these dear octogenarians’ true-life experiences. Rose and Dawn remain perennial 80-somethings to this day. Diana's entertaining Italian family continues to inspire her to write; the stories literally come from what happens to Diana, her friends and family.