"Brief is life but love is long"

Saturday started out dreary and rainy. I remember sitting at Reagan's Powder Puff Derby this past weekend thinking, as I stared out the open door of the church we were at, watching the torrential downpour going on outside, that I hoped that it cleared up before the memorial at the college that afternoon. 


North Georgia College does a Memorial Retreat every year for students and alumni that had passed throughout the year. It is a tradition that was started because of the school's heavy military affiliation and strong ROTC program. From what I gathered the school began the retreat shortly after 9/11, when, like many other military around the country, many of their students and recent graduates began deploying for the Middle East. It slowly began including alumni of the school and eventually encompassed those students that lost their lives while enrolled at the school. This year, unfortunately, that group included you. 


About an hour before it was time to leave for the memorial, the sun made a glorious, and according to the weather reports for the day, an unexpected appearance. I thought to myself that you probably new that you were being honored that afternoon and so you went to God, and in your sly, persuasive manner, asked that the sun be allowed to come out to warm the day. I was especially thinking about the time that we were talking to Father Scott about getting sponsors for the 5K and you mentioned that  you could persuade any number of sponsors into donating money towards the cause. When Father Scott asked how you proposed to make that happen, you replied, with your most angelic of smiles, "How could anyone say no to this face". And it did prove to be a difficult task to say no to you, even for me at times. 

The memorial was held just off of the drill field, front and center of the memorials themselves. I have been to a lot of memorials and dedications in the last two months for you, but I have to say, this one was the most intriguing of them all. It was, of course, mostly military based, with a distinguished Colonel taking stance as the guest speaker, but perhaps that is what made it so grand in my eyes. They didn't have to add any fallen war heroes to the combat memorial but they added 59 names to the alumni wall and 4 names to the enrolled students wall. Your name was, of course, was one of the four. 


It was strange really. As I sat there surrounding by the grieving families of the three other girls that died that year, there were only two thoughts that went through my mind in the moments during the opening statements of the retreat. The first, which made me giggle to myself, was how you hated receiving lines at funerals because you thought they were depressing and the second was how sorry I felt for the families of the girls that had lost their lives so tragically. As I watched the mother of one of the girls, wearing a blue shirt with the girl's name on it and holding a tissue, sob, uncontrollably, I heard them say your name over the loud speaker. It was in that moment that the reality of the situation rang true once again in my head: I was a part of one of the families sitting in the front two rows and we were here because you were one of those girls. The irony of it all: that while I was feeling sorry for the other families of the deceased girls, the crowd that gathered that day were looking at us thinking how sorry for us they were. 


The speaker asked our families to stand so that we could be recognized by those that had come. I stood proudly for you, but thought to myself, does the crowd really need help identifying the grieving families? Is it really that difficult to spot a mother that has lost their child? Or father that has lost his baby girl? Or a brother or sister that has lost one of their best friends? I thought I could even hear your voice saying, "Really? Hey people! They are the ones with the tears streaming down their faces and boxes of tissues in their laps!" Like I wanted to recognized for being the girl that sister died tragically and suddenly. But I knew in my heart that it was just something that had been done and it wasn't meant in jest.

   

   They added your name, along with the three girls' names before you, to the huge piece of granite that stands to the side of the memorial area. Engraved in the memorial is, "Brief is life, love is long", a quote made famous by the poet Lord Alfred Tennyson. I got curious as to where this quote came from so, you guessed it, I googled it. I laughed when I saw the poem that it came from popped up for reasons I will leave between you and I, because I know that you thought the same thing. It was from his poem "The Princess: O Swallow"". The excerpt that it came from is: 

O Tell her, brief is life but love is long

And brief the sun of summer in the North

And brief the moon of beauty in the South 

    From what I gather it was a poem written by him to a girl in which he asks, nay begs, this swallow  (his first mistake, asking a bird) to go and convince this chic that they were meant for each other and to please give him a chance; that she may lose her chance (darn) to be with him.  Such a guy... I wish I had just left well enough alone because I really had liked that quote. 

    As we were leaving the campus, watching the Corps of Cadets march away, I remembered a tweet of yours that I saw from your first day on North Georgia College's campus. 

    I laughed to myself as I thought of you drooling over those military boys that first day and how fitting it was that you were honored at a military retreat, completely and blissfully surrounded by strapping cadets. I bet you were there but you probably weren't paying a bit of attention to the ceremony...