Tag Archives: Anna Bonde

It lives

Posted on May 13, 2019 by

The power of the body to heal is amazing. The spirit, too, I guess. But next month my hand will be fine, and next month my heart will still ache when I think of her. Continue reading →

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Startled by a priceless promise

Posted on March 17, 2018 by

Seventeen years ago today, about this time of the early morning, my daughter Anna was killed. Our daughter. Megan’s sister. Dorothy’s granddaughter. PK and Gloria’s granddaughter. Paul and Kathy’s niece. Christopher and Clara, Andrew, Amanda and Melissa’s cousin. The twins … Continue reading →

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Days like this

Posted on January 15, 2018 by

I feel like I should write something about Gloria. Today is the first anniversary of her death. It was a good death – no, not a good death, a good dying. Her family was gathered around her. She was alert … Continue reading →

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The day will come

Posted on November 1, 2017 by

The number of people I remember on All Saints’ Day continues to grow. It is the burden of life. My father, 96, read me the names of those being remembered in his church. Again and again the names he read … Continue reading →

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“I kept that promise.”

Posted on July 10, 2017 by

It’s hard to describe what happened to me at the altar during the prayers of the church, yesterday. Typical Lutheran congregations don’t have a shared vocabulary for discussing personal spiritual experiences. Other communities of which I have been a part find it easier to say that God spoke to them. Continue reading →

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Tomorrow

Posted on May 12, 2017 by

Tomorrow would have been my daughter’s 36th birthday. It snuck up in me, busy as I’ve been. But a look at the calendar today, and that number 13 jumped out. Is it really May already? Are we here again? What … Continue reading →

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Thinking in stories

Posted on April 28, 2017 by

We are creatures who think in stories. Confusion and anxiety reign when we can’t figure out the story line. It locates us. It gives meaning to our past, shapes our understanding of the present and gives direction for the future. Continue reading →

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Let us pray for wisdom

Posted on March 18, 2017 by

It’s not possible to remember everything. With time memories slip away. Fragments remain. And the love remains. At least, that’s what should remain. I am heartened by those who turn their sorrow into kindness. I am saddened by those who turn it into bitterness. But I understand, most of us have stood at one time or another at that fork in the road where those two paths diverge Continue reading →

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All lives

Posted on March 16, 2017 by

16 years ago tomorrow my 19 year old daughter and two of her friends were killed by a driver who had been drinking. Though Anna and her friends had been driving responsibly, traveling the speed limit, wearing their seat belts, … Continue reading →

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I just wish that I could hear

Posted on May 12, 2016 by

Tomorrow is Anna’s 35th birthday. Hard to imagine. She is locked forever now at 19. Her smile. Her laugh. Her brilliant eyes. The daisies in her hair, plucked from the wildflowers on her way to school. Her warmth. Her depth of spirit. Her passion for dance and theater and the life of the Spirit. Continue reading →

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