Mom Climbed Up On The Roof

 You might think after all these years of writing obituaries for heads of state, royalty, movie stars, songwriters, cartoonists and the like that I would be naturally suited for the task of writing one for my mother. 

In many ways, you would be right. I certainly have the ability to string more than a few words together, and the subject of this particular exercise is not unknown to me. The trouble came when I started to think about what my mother would want me to say. What my brothers would want me to say. There is no end of amusing anecdotes in my mind when it comes to my dear departed mom. Finding the appropriate words and sentiment was the challenge. She would not have wanted a fuss made over her.

Initially there was a thought of avoiding the experience completely. I have this outlet here to spin tales of my mother and all the ways she impacted the world in which I live. She never once told me that life is like a box of chocolates, but she was right there when things got tough to let me know that this was all part of a learning experience. She was fond of letting me know that I was "rounding a corner" when thing were hard. 

Turns out she was right. My world has been a never-ending series of corners to round. 

And now I'll be doing it without my mom to remind me. 

The other challenge of writing an obituary is the notion that somehow these would be the final words on the subject. This will not be the case for me. Nor will it be for the legions of fans who followed her without the aid of social media. They called. They dropped by. They went to lunch. They kept in touch. There is not a full page in any daily newspaper that would hold all the sentiment involved in this moment. 

So I went straight to the point. I followed the simplest template I could find and filled in the blanks. What will appear in the Boulder Daily Camera today, October 30, is the mere mention of Barbara Caven's passing.  I chose to have it run on Sunday in the hopes that more readers might catch the news who have not already received notice from someone somewhere already. And the comics might act as a nice sorbet for the soul afterward. 

What I did not mention in the published version was that my mother stomped on the Terra. Fiercely but with more compassion that I can describe. She will be missed. 

Every day.