Celebrating the Life and Mourning the Death of Marlene Saloner

I just returned from the funeral service for a friend, and my girlfriend’s long time dear friend, Marlene Saloner. While I do not want her to be remembered for this, it is a fact that she had a particularly virulent and often quite painful former of cancer for some 15 years, and in the two years that I have known her she was quite sick and death always seemed not far away. Thankfully when it did come, it was quick and peaceful. The important part of knowing Marlene is not that she spent the last 15 year staring death down, but that she did not waste even a second of that time and instead filled it with love, generosity, kindness, compassion, patience, humor, the sweetest smile and good food, for family and friends and even strangers and she even found time for unexpected new people like myself who stumbled into her life by reason of being the boyfriend of one her her 20 year coffee klatch girlfriends. Marlene was an amazing women who somehow made us all feel good even when she was hurting.

 

I am not familiar with Jewish traditions around death and was somewhat surprised by the simplicity of Marlene’s well attended funeral – no music, no flowers, no program, no candles – only Marlene’s simple pine coffin, thoughtful words and us. It was perfect!

 

Actually, the words were more than thoughtful, they were inspiring, none the least of which is a poem read magically by Kim Saloner, Marlene’s youngest of three daughters, and who is just graduating from college this week. The Poem is entitled Anyway and it is by Sister Theresea. I offer it here:

 

 

 

Posted 06 / 12 / 2012

 

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