[Note: This is a re-post from 13 November 2004.]
Michaela Kristin Haran
1997 - 2004
My beloved companion and dear friend Michaela passed away today, 13 November 2004, at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. She had been her usual self, playing peek-a-boo around corners and chasing invisible prey, until the last.
I heard behind me, whilst sitting at the computing-system work station, the familiar sounds of Michaela and Tonya playing tag; then, suddenly, I heard a deep groan; and upon looking down, I beheld Michaela lying on the floor on her right side near the foot of the bed. She seemed to be experiencing difficulty breathing, her abodomen appearing to convulse several times.
Emitting several small mews, then silently opening her mouth slightly a few times, Michaela became still and breathed no more. Attempts at cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and heart massage proved futile; and thus my dear little one's soul passed from amongst us into Heaven.
We had known for several years that Michaela had a defective heart; and even as she loved to play chase and bat-the-ball (her favorite "ball" being a wadded-up piece of letter paper) she would tire quickly. Thus, I had sadly entertained the though for some years that perhaps she would not be with us as long as we might wish.
Please, in a spare moment, say a prayer for the repose of Michaela's soul. She was a wonderful person — affectionate, caring and wise — and I shall miss her with all my heart and soul. Yet, as surely as Michaela has passed away from here, she is not gone: Her beautiful life shall remain always with us, in memories of our happy and loving times together and in the reality that her persona is forever a part of the universe.
On the Beach at Night, Alone
By Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass
ON the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro, singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining—I think a thought of the clef of the universes, and of the future.
A VAST SIMILITUDE interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets, comets, asteroids,
All the substances of the same, and all that is spiritual upon the same,
All distances of place, however wide,
All distances of time—all inanimate forms,
All Souls—all living bodies, though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes—the fishes, the brutes,
All men and women—me also;
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages;
All identities that have existed, or may exist, on this globe, or any globe;
All lives and deaths—all of the past, present, future;
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spannâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d, and shall forever span them, and compactly hold them, and enclose them.
Rest in peace, dear little one!
=^..^=
Michaela Kristin Haran
1997 - 2004
My beloved companion and dear friend Michaela passed away today, 13 November 2004, at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. She had been her usual self, playing peek-a-boo around corners and chasing invisible prey, until the last.
I heard behind me, whilst sitting at the computing-system work station, the familiar sounds of Michaela and Tonya playing tag; then, suddenly, I heard a deep groan; and upon looking down, I beheld Michaela lying on the floor on her right side near the foot of the bed. She seemed to be experiencing difficulty breathing, her abodomen appearing to convulse several times.
Emitting several small mews, then silently opening her mouth slightly a few times, Michaela became still and breathed no more. Attempts at cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and heart massage proved futile; and thus my dear little one's soul passed from amongst us into Heaven.
We had known for several years that Michaela had a defective heart; and even as she loved to play chase and bat-the-ball (her favorite "ball" being a wadded-up piece of letter paper) she would tire quickly. Thus, I had sadly entertained the though for some years that perhaps she would not be with us as long as we might wish.
Please, in a spare moment, say a prayer for the repose of Michaela's soul. She was a wonderful person — affectionate, caring and wise — and I shall miss her with all my heart and soul. Yet, as surely as Michaela has passed away from here, she is not gone: Her beautiful life shall remain always with us, in memories of our happy and loving times together and in the reality that her persona is forever a part of the universe.
On the Beach at Night, Alone
By Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass
ON the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro, singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining—I think a thought of the clef of the universes, and of the future.
A VAST SIMILITUDE interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets, comets, asteroids,
All the substances of the same, and all that is spiritual upon the same,
All distances of place, however wide,
All distances of time—all inanimate forms,
All Souls—all living bodies, though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes—the fishes, the brutes,
All men and women—me also;
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages;
All identities that have existed, or may exist, on this globe, or any globe;
All lives and deaths—all of the past, present, future;
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spannâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d, and shall forever span them, and compactly hold them, and enclose them.
Rest in peace, dear little one!
=^..^=
