I just stole this meme from Ruthling.

Here are the rules: Grab the nearest book. Open the book to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your journal/blog along with these instructions.

Don’t dig for your favorite book or something cool, pick the closest. Tag five other people to do the same. (OK, I won't tag people, but hey, this is always fun)

"During the first winter I drove there one afternoon
after Tom and Andy and Beth and Dor and Bahia had been there,

because when I stepped out of the car their footprints marked the snowy lawn:
the men's big boots, the women's smaller ones,

and Bahia's little boot prints, as big as my hand, looping and falling down
into a snow angel next to his grave, then another messy angel on it,"

This is from "The Grave" in What the Living Do by Marie Howe

No surprise this book is sitting on my desk since I quoted from it yesterday. I actually read the book about a month ago and adored it. Then I returned it to the library. I got it out again because you might have noticed the elegiac theme. My friend Laura has gone from seriously ill to dying. She's home getting hospice care. I think about her a lot.