Lil

I've been a member of the Blackridge Garden Club since 1999, and participated in some of their activities well before that time. I've met and worked with lovely people over those many years through my association with the BGC. If I had to single out one thing out of all of my experiences with the organization as having the biggest impact on me, as being the closest to my heart, and as being a true blessing in my life, it has been the opportunity to meet and get to know Lil Huguley. 
We worked together on many projects, and I admired and loved her very much. She was smart. She was wise. She was talented. She was gracious. She was beautiful. She was funny. She and Neal created a wonderful family and a true partnership. I will miss her every day, and I will try to be more like her.
I recently lost my mother, and chose this poem to share at her funeral. I'd like to share it again, in honor of Lil:

Lessons Mother Taught Us

She planted dill for swallow-tails
and milkweed where monarchs would lay
their caterpillar offspring round
the grass green meadows of May.

The migrants returned then as always;
how quickly her crops were consumed!
but countless chrysalides dotted the dell
tucked inside their golden cocoons.

Then early one morning she beckoned
us watch the mystery unfold;
the metamorphosis almost complete
translucent shells gave up their gold.

Wet wings greeted the rising sun
and the warmth of a soft summer breeze,
soon butterflies coloured meadow and wood
floating gracefully throughout the trees.

She told us of unseen transcendings
as we watched the born-agains soar;
so certain were we then of heaven
as if we had been there before.

J.D. Deutschendorf, from At the Water’s Edge