This picture was taken in 1952 with my father, Mama, my mother, and me.
She of blessed memory Kate Klein passed 10 years ago this week. I had promised her that she would be in her bed in her home when this happened. Gratefully I was able to keep my word.
Mother Kate had a beautiful dying, surrounded by her children and grandchildren during her last days. I played her favorite music. She ate her favorite Chinese food and drank Coca-Cola until the end.
She exhaled her last breath as I entered her room. Surrendered to the process, Kate was protected. Her departed husband and mother were waiting to embrace her in eternal light. It was all good.
She had been very close with her mother her whole life. Mother and Mama were inseparable/ Kate and Shirley/ daughter and mother.
Kate treated her mother like a precious, honored, and wise woman. Fleeing Ukraine in 1918, Shirley and her husband had Kate in Romania four years later. Traveling to Istanbul, Paris, and finally America, they were a close-knit group.
My father happily joined them and they all lived together. I came in 1946. Once my mother’s father died, Mama moved into my little room. How fitting – since I had been named for her mother!
Mother Kate gathered those most precious to her and created a warm and loving family. She gave birth to two more children, a son, and another daughter. Of course, Mama moved with us into the big suburban house we all grew up in. This is the familial home of 70 years which I just recently sold.
Mom burst into proud tears at my graduation from Boston University. Honored with a Magna cum Laude, it was announced that I had gotten a full scholarship from Brown University. I received my dual Masters of Arts in literature and teaching, a MAT, from this acclaimed Ivy League institution.
It instilled in me a love of writing, words, and telling stories. All of this comes together in what I wrote about my Mother Kate in “Pathways to Vibrant Health and Well-Being”.
Honored to be in this #1 best-selling book, you can learn more about:
• Mother Kate
• Our multi-generation trip to Paris
• My trip to China.
The poem at the bottom of this content is in my chapter about her, “The Great Empress Dragon.” I read it at her funeral.
I had tried to follow in the footsteps of Mother Kate’s early life. I married young and got a teaching degree. But in the late 60’s with Joplin, Dylan, and freedom in the air, I could not be contained. My passion propelled me onto my true journey.
Mother Kate was my rock. From this foundation of love, I was able to experience healing and wellness modalities around the world and bring them back to be of service.
In a variation on Mother Kate’s life’s theme, I do now teach, not elementary school though, but locally and globally. I teach spirit tools to be in touch with your inner soul path, not literature.
Grounded in loving my family, I have brought into my life a circle of kindred souls and an extended community of precious connections. I birthed a magical daughter and cherish our relationship.
A Renaissance woman with many facets, I am also a writer and poetess. Do hope my mentoring allows YOU to celebrate yourself to expand and explore all your gifts, as you move into your soul’s purpose in your life.
If you wish, I can help you progress with your own story also.
“The Great Empress Dragon”
In between breaths Kate rose up into the Light,
As gently as a rose opens itself and offers its petals to the Divine.
Purity arising from a perfect consecration while clinging to Truth,
She was surrounded by Love as she surrendered her life into the great eternal embrace.
I saw her soul rise up through her body as a plume of light,
Shimmering, iridescent pastels: all sweetness.
It began at her feet and grew larger as her soul being travelled through and finally
Reached her crown: all glory.
I was humbled to witness. I was honored to help her on her journey.
She is now all Love and Light.