April 29, 2023
“Perhaps they are not the stars, but rather openings in Heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy.”
– Author unknown
When Nancy was young, she was fascinated by the stars. Her father Paul would sit with her, and together they would explore the wonders of the skies like two amateur astronomers. When John Glenn made his space shot, Paul explained to her what was happening as they watched it on the family’s small black and white TV. Pretty soon, she began a scrapbook with newspaper clippings that kept a chronicle of America’s space program.
Their interest culminated on that historic July 20th in 1969, when the first man walked on the moon — an event that was immortalized by Neil Armstrong’s famous words, “That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.” Father and daughter were transfixed by the coverage of that historic moon walk.
Encouraged by her father, Nancy took an astronomy course in New Rochelle High School, which had a beautiful planetarium. However, she soon discovered there was more to astronomy than star-gazing. In fact, there was a lot of math, which was not a strong suit for a teenager who failed algebra. She struggled through the course and barely passed, but her father was always there to encourage her.
Years later, as she sat by his hospital bed during his last hours, she clung to those memories, and when his heart finally stopped beating, she realized that he had passed on the anniversary of the moonwalk. Grieving brought so much pain, but there was also so much gratitude for having a father whose love and devotion endured till the end.
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“The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal, and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again, but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same, nor would you want to be.”
— Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler