Memories and Memorials: It’s Lilac Time Again in the Valley…

The house smells of lilacs this morning. Yesterday my daughter and husband came for a visit and stayed for a drizzly BBQ. Son-in-law Avi is a computer engineer and worked his magic on a publishing project I have undertaken. When I went to greet them at the door, I was gifted with a luxurious bouquet of lilacs: soft lavender blossoms surrounded by a heady nimbus of delicate fragrance. By coincidence I had just gathered a bouquet of purple and white lilacs from our own yard to dress up the house a bit for their visit.

Just over a year ago I posted about lilacs (“The Valley in Lilac Time…”), how they evoked for me a special fondness for redheaded girls and my youth. It is a backward spring again this year, and the lilacs are just starting to bloom. Memorial Day is fast approaching, and I will be able to gather a bouquet from the place to take to Packwood Memorial Cemetery in Eastern Washington, the old pioneer cemetery where my dad now lies. I’ll add to my own lilacs additional white blossoms from an ancient bush at the old homestead not far from Dad’s grave: a gift from here and there to dress the spot where he rests among the spring wildflowers.But these lilacs I take from my daughter and arrange carefully in a vase take me beyond beauty and fragrance to a bittersweet memory not long past, for these lilacs are a memorial bouquet from the yard of Dr. Kathreen Gimbrere. For many years  Dr. Gimbrere was my daughter’s caregiver and friend, and even though I met Kathreen only once—she was a guest at Marika’s wedding—I felt as if she were a member of our family, a close friend if only through our daughter’s sharing of their experiences together. At our first and only meeting I found Dr. Gimbrere to be a remarkable woman, one who loved to laugh, who savored life, the world, her patients, her calling…. We talked so comfortably, Kathreen and I, about our families, our interests…my daughter. I found her to be a vivacious, energetic lady, so engaged in life and living.

Dr. Kathreen Gimbrere left this earth last September, less than six months after being diagnosed with a virulent, aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. But as I pass that vase laden with soft beauty, pass through its lilac fragrance, it’s not lilac things that come to mind. I think of the blessing Kathreen’s care and love was to our family, our daughter, to so many lives, and to this world. Hers is indeed a legacy of love.

But the lilacs bloom eternal and Kathreen’s spirit blooms with them now, and in them, and their fragrance enfolds us in her memory.

Kathreen Gimbrere 

February 4, 1959--September 30, 2010

in loving memory

 “…come back and bring a sprig of lilac.”
Raintree County,

Ross Lockridge, Jr.

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