I Will Always Love You

The world lost the incomparable Dolly Parton today.

Thank you for everything, Dolly.  The joy, the light, the philanthropy, the music.

May you rest in peace.

I hope life treats you kind

And I hope you have all you've dreamed of

And I wish you joy and happiness

But above all this, I wish you love

Photo: David McClister

May There Always Be Sunshine

On this day in 1985, a thirteen-year-old girl named Samantha Smith died in a plane crash in Maine, along with her father Arthur and six other people.

If the name is unfamiliar to you, you're not alone.  I had no idea who she was.  Her name floated into my orbit only a few days ago, and I needed to know more.

In 1982, when tensions were high between the US and the Soviet Union, 10-year-old Samantha wrote a letter to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov.  She was afraid of nuclear war and asked Andropov if he were going to attack the US.  When months went by without a response, she sent a letter to Soviet ambassador to the US Anatoly Dobrynin, asking if Andropov planned to respond.

In early 1983, she received a letter from Andropov, who stated that the Soviet Union wanted peace, not war.  He invited Samantha and her parents to visit, which they did in July 1983.

She spent a portion of her time at the Young Pioneer camp in Artek, making new friends and learning Russian songs and dances.  One song was "May There Always Be Sunshine," and it was a Soviet song whose lyrics spoke of hope, peace, and the simple joys of life.

Samantha wrote a book about her Soviet experience entitled Journey to the Soviet Union.  You can read it for free on Archive.org:  Journey to the Soviet Union : Smith, Samantha, 1972-1985 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

The impression she made on the Soviet Union was indelible.  After her death, they built monuments, put her on a stamp, and gave her name to many things:  streets, a diamond, a mountain, an asteroid, a new flower cultivar, and an ocean vessel.  In the US, there was a peace garden in Michigan named for her, along with elementary schools in Washington and NYC.  In front of the Maine State Museum in Augusta there's a statue of her, showing her releasing a dove with a bear cub resting at her feet.

It's hard to know if she would have continued being an activist as she grew older.  It grieves me to think that the world may've lost a valuable peace ambassador on that awful day in August.

She left behind such a remarkable legacy.  And it all began with a simple letter written by - in the words of Yuri Andropov - "a courageous and honest girl, resembling Becky, the friend of Tom Sawyer in the famous book of your compatriot Mark Twain."

May her memory always be a blessing.

May there always be sunshine,

May there always be blue skies,

May there always be my mama,

May there always be me!

 

Let the Waves Carry You Where the Light Cannot

Title Quote by Mohit Kaushik

Lissa has been on my mind a lot lately. I was going through some craft supplies recently, and I found items she had sent me. It didn't reduce me to tears, but I felt this hollow melancholy and aching sadness. It will never make sense to me that she was taken so soon.

When I was growing up, there was a piece of jewelry that was popular with girls who were best friends. It was a heart upon which was inscribed "Best Friends," and it split in two so each person could wear one half. Lissa and I never shared a pendant like this but even so, when she died, I felt as though the other half of that heart was irretrievably lost. It was destined to always be broken in two and fractured, just like my life.

I refuse to stop speaking her name - to the point that people might get annoyed with me for repeating myself. David Eagleman said, “There are three deaths. The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time.” While I live and have my mental faculties, I will keep her alive.

About eight years ago on Facebook, I had posted a question asking what people would want to have named for them. Lissa said a beach, preferably on the sea.

I haven't yet visited many beaches since we moved to Ireland. However, there is a beach in Bray called Back Strand that soothed me when I walked its sandy shore. It was secluded, away from the hustle and noise of the promenade. At least in my mind, it will forever be known by Melissa's name.

I wish she were here to sit on the sand and watch the waves. I wish I could've shown it to her.