During difficult times, and Sali’s final days, we were helped by the kind staff from Hospice Compassus. After Sali passed, they continued to offer me support with their bereavement program throughout the year. On the one-year anniversary of her death they sent me a letter and a brochure, Journey Through Grief: Looking back at your first year. They encourage “Grief journaling and all forms of writing as an important and helpful tool for healing.” They offered helping prompts to those grieving to get started with these two Reflective Questions.
As you look back at the past twelve months:
1. When thinking about the life of the person that you’ve lost to death, what — of themselves — have they given you to help you move through the rest of your life?
2. During your walk through grief, what have you learned about yourself that will assist you in moving forward?
I had been writing in a journal all along, and posted some entries and many poems. After reading these questions I was moved to write a haiku, then extended it to this tanka. I will give more thought to these questions and write something later, but wanted to post this tonight to mark the one-year anniversary of Sali’s passing.
Tanka for Sali
A remembrance of you and your gift to me
What you did for me
Was draw Love out of my heart
And into our lives
It completely transformed me
To become a better man
Oct 1, 2017
One year after Sali’s passing
© Ken Chawkin
Fairfield, Iowa
This entry, 9 months after her passing, reviews our relationship and what it meant: For Us—a tanka honoring Sali and what we shared. I also updated the entry Celebrating the Glorious Life of Sally Monroe Peden, which contains newer descriptions about Sali by friends who spoke at her Memorial Service. There are many beautiful tributes there, and now, halfway down, you’ll see today’s date, October 1, 2017, with new entries from David and Rhoda Orme-Johnson, Kate Ross, and later Rannie Boes.
This new post, added November 12, 2017, is relevant: 1st anniversary of my India trip to spread Sali’s ashes on the Narmada River, visit Bijouri campus and Maharishi Vedic Pandits at the Brahmasthan.
Added June 28, 2019: Poem for Sali—An Undying Love—heals the heart.
Tags: david orme-johnson, grief, Hospice Compassus, journaling, kate ross, one-year anniversary, poem, remembrance, rhoda orme-johnson, Sali, Sally Peden, tanka, writing to heal
The Uncarved Blog 
October 1, 2017 at 11:27 pm |
[…] Celebrating the Glorious Life of Sally M Peden; Final entries leading up to and after Sali’s passing; and this new poem, Haiku for Her. Added, June 30, 2017, 9 months after Sali’s passing: For Us—a tanka honoring Sali and what we shared. Added Sept 1, 2017: ‘In Our Loving Eyes’ a poem by @kenchawkin remembering a special love with Sally Peden. Added October 1, 2017, A tanka remembering Sali and her gift to me on the one-year anniversary of her passing. […]
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October 1, 2017 at 11:28 pm |
[…] Added October 1, 2017, A tanka remembering Sali and her gift to me on the one-year anniversary of her passing. […]
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October 1, 2017 at 11:29 pm |
[…] Added October 1, 2017, A tanka remembering Sali and her gift to me on the one-year anniversary of her passing. […]
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October 1, 2017 at 11:31 pm |
[…] Added October 1, 2017, A tanka remembering Sali and her gift to me on the one-year anniversary of her passing. […]
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October 1, 2017 at 11:40 pm |
Ken, I have never experienced a more unconditional love than yours to Sally and probably hers to you as well (I did not know her close enough to say this from my own accord. But I do believe you when you state it. ! Thank you for this great gift!!! Happy Anniversary – it truly is worth a celebration! This love was made in Heaven. It is “not time’s fool” (Shakespeare Sonnet 116).
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October 1, 2017 at 11:43 pm |
Thank you so much, Margot, for your acknowledgement of our divine love. It is eternal! Jai Guru Dev
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January 6, 2018 at 12:21 pm |
[…] Sali and what we shared. And on the first anniversary of her passing, October 1, 2017, I posted: A tanka remembering Sali and her gift to me on the one-year anniversary of her passing. On November 12, 2017 I posted: 1st anniversary of my India trip to spread Sali’s ashes on the […]
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January 16, 2018 at 10:18 am |
[…] On October 1, 2017, I posted A tanka remembering Sali and her gift to me on the one-year anniversary of her passing. […]
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April 18, 2018 at 1:58 am |
[…] my 93 year old dad passed away a couple of weeks ago, I came across this helpful question, “When thinking about the life of the person that you’ve lost to death, what — of themselves […]
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October 1, 2020 at 9:48 pm |
[…] Related: A tanka remembering Sali and her gift to me on the one-year anniversary of her passing. […]
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