April 2, 2006, 85th Birthday

In Memoriam – this poem was written by Senior Center member Charlotte Friedman, a rare and beautiful person, who left this world on November 25, 2006


Now I am five and eighty
You’d think I’d be quite wise
You’d think I’d learned a thing or two
Like how to organize
my stuff.
But something’s always interfering
With what I plan to do
I make a list that’s six feet long
And accomplish only two,
tasks, that is.
My lists are full of promise
Each job will be complete
The phone will ring
Oh…I’ve got time
I’ll make a pile that’s neat,
or two, or three.
Each list has the same old line
See Yesterday – it’s in bold type
Or sometimes – see Previous
So full of hope -- I have no gripe
Compulsion, never a part of me
To get things done, to hurry
To force myself to finish a task
No part of this personality
Better late than never
My mother always said.
I took the first two words to heart
And there they stayed, innate, inbred.

Now let me think a little bit
Of times gone by and still to come
How loved ones I have many
Who keep me from getting glum,
The family who surrounds me
and makes my life complete,
So what if I have piles of stuff
Divesting’s an enormous feat.

Now I am five and eighty
I’ve sown a long, long row
Hoed up and back and sideways
Hope more a row to sow.
Experiences: many
Shocked at times
At times of death scared
Mistakes enough for two lives
Accept all. Do not be sad.
Now I am five and eighty
Still thrill to sunset’s glow
No longer look for meaning
Just live and love and sow.