My Mom, Barrie Lee Summers, neé Kramer, died on August 19, 2023 after turning 80 this year. She died in her home, surrounded by loving friends, grandchildren, my two brothers, and my Dad, who was her companion for 58 years.

It’s such an enormous loss that I really don’t have any more words to put here. But, I did want to share this poem by Mary Oliver that Mom read aloud every morning for the past few weeks, with people who were near. It is clear and sweet, just like the sun it describes, and my Mom. I miss you Mom ❤️

She wanted people to donate to these organizations in her memory: Trinity Solebury, Elixir Fund, Kin Wellness, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver

Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who made the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety –

best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light –
good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.