Every friend is a window in our lives, which opens and lets in additional sunshine and fresh air. Joanne’s window was a large picture window, like the one in her childhood kitchen in Newton Center looking over the park and the one in the “Big House” looking over the Damarascotta River. It was “sooooo big” to include all that Joanne had to bring into our lives.
I have memories of wonderful times with this very special friend. Her exuberance, love of life, love of family and friends, and travel…I have only deep regrets for not visiting her often enough …..Now she is gone.
She is remembered in my mind’s eye for her lively eyes and her bright laugh and her exuberance.
I met Joanne in the late 40’s when we both went to Winsor. We commuted on the T from Newton Center to Longwood Station and back after school. As soon as I arrived home in Needham, I would take the phone into the coat closet, so my mother wouldn’t know I was using the phone because I was supposed to be doing my homework, and call her; we always had so much to talk about. Every summer in high school I’d visit her in Maine and we spent the nights in the little cabin called “the ice house” with the porcupines chomping away underneath it. We both learned to drive using the Model T that was there. When we graduated from Winsor, we spent the summer waitressing at Silver Bay YMCA Conference Center where she met Floyd. Through the years, we’ve continued often to talk on the phone and get together when she drove through Boston en route to Maine. It was just last Thursday that Rip told me that she decided to die since she was no longer able to walk around the grounds. Sadly, I had hoped so much to visit her before she left.
Her legacy is the challenge to be the best and happiest we can be.
I share your grief and loss and send love to all of you.
I’m reminded of Henry Van Dyke’s poem,
The Ship
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads
her sails to the morning breeze, & starts for the blue ocean.
She is the object of beauty and strength and I watch her
until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where
the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, “There, she’s gone.”
Gone where? Gone from my sight…that’s all.
She’s is as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when
she left my side, and just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her;
and just at the moment when someone at my side says,
“There, she’s gone,” there are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout,
“Here she comes!”
Tim, Kathy, Will, Christie and all of the Spencers,
We are sorry for your loss and are thinking of you. Joanne was great!
Jim, Jess, Travis and Cole Schwartz
Every friend is a window in our lives, which opens and lets in additional sunshine and fresh air. Joanne’s window was a large picture window, like the one in her childhood kitchen in Newton Center looking over the park and the one in the “Big House” looking over the Damarascotta River. It was “sooooo big” to include all that Joanne had to bring into our lives.
I have memories of wonderful times with this very special friend. Her exuberance, love of life, love of family and friends, and travel…I have only deep regrets for not visiting her often enough …..Now she is gone.
She is remembered in my mind’s eye for her lively eyes and her bright laugh and her exuberance.
I met Joanne in the late 40’s when we both went to Winsor. We commuted on the T from Newton Center to Longwood Station and back after school. As soon as I arrived home in Needham, I would take the phone into the coat closet, so my mother wouldn’t know I was using the phone because I was supposed to be doing my homework, and call her; we always had so much to talk about. Every summer in high school I’d visit her in Maine and we spent the nights in the little cabin called “the ice house” with the porcupines chomping away underneath it. We both learned to drive using the Model T that was there. When we graduated from Winsor, we spent the summer waitressing at Silver Bay YMCA Conference Center where she met Floyd. Through the years, we’ve continued often to talk on the phone and get together when she drove through Boston en route to Maine. It was just last Thursday that Rip told me that she decided to die since she was no longer able to walk around the grounds. Sadly, I had hoped so much to visit her before she left.
Her legacy is the challenge to be the best and happiest we can be.
I share your grief and loss and send love to all of you.
I’m reminded of Henry Van Dyke’s poem,
The Ship
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads
her sails to the morning breeze, & starts for the blue ocean.
She is the object of beauty and strength and I watch her
until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where
the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, “There, she’s gone.”
Gone where? Gone from my sight…that’s all.
She’s is as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when
she left my side, and just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her;
and just at the moment when someone at my side says,
“There, she’s gone,” there are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout,
“Here she comes!”
Tim, Kathy, Will, Christie and all of the Spencers,
We are sorry for your loss and are thinking of you. Joanne was great!
Jim, Jess, Travis and Cole Schwartz