Valerie at her father's grave
(beautiful blue orb visible near top of photo) Below is poem Val wrote for her father: "I saw you in the distance your time had come to fly. I wished I too, could go with you beyond the Eastern sky. I wept to think of life without you, the inner loss of our domain. For you'd go forth in brightest rapture, but you'd be gone as I remain. Those I knew that sailed before you left this world for other shores but you reached back and touched my Spirit, a warm embrace from Soul to Soul. Great peace had stilled my fearsome worries, such a peace I'd never known, and swept me passed my old foundations that I might reach for something more. For since you passed beyond tomorrow to try your wings upon the sky I feel through you, I too, can follow and know what joy it is to fly." Valerie McMorris (c)