Greetings friends,
Today I will be making the last entry for this Caring Bridge site.
I wanted to provide the links for Sallie's obituary, as well as two articles that were written about her in our local paper, the Missoulian:
http://missoulian.com/articles/2008/06/11/obits/04wed/01_june11.txt
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/06/21/news/mtregional/news06.txt
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/06/23/hometowns/zhome02.txt
At Sallie's memorial service many people commented that this site was so useful to them. It has been a wonderful way to facilitate communication for everyone - as evidenced by the 10,000+ hits to the site. Caring Bridge is available at no charge for anyone to use, and you may be interested in making a tribute donation in honor of Sallie - if so, you can do that on this page just to the right of this entry.
I would like, once again, on behalf of Sallie's family, to thank everyone for the good wishes, prayers, flowers, food, and love that flooded the Scott-Fetz household during the past year. I know I speak for them all when I say that the way the community - both locally and across the country - supported Sallie, Jerry, Chris, Sacha, Andreas, Ariel, Gillian, Brian, Sarah and Sallie's sisters Pat and Donna was a godsend and was an astonishing display of affection.
Finally, I will close with a poem by John O'Donohue that seems written expressly for Sallie:
On The Death of the Beloved
Though we need to weep your loss,
You dwell in that safe place in our hearts,
Where no storm or might or pain can reach you.
Your love was like the dawn
Brightening over our lives
Awakening beneath the dark
A further adventure of colour.
The sound of your voice
Found for us
A new music
That brightened everything.
Whatever you enfolded in your gaze
Quickened in the joy of its being;
You placed smiles like flowers
On the altar of the heart.
Your mind always sparkled
With wonder at things.
Though your days were brief,
Your spirit was live, awake, complete.
We look towards each other no longer
From the old distance of our names;
Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,
As close to us as we are to ourselves.
Though we cannot see you with outward eyes,
We know our soul's gaze is upon your face,
Smiling back at us from within everything
To which we bring our best refinement.
Let us not look for you only in memory,
Where we would grow lonely without you.
You would want us to find you in presence,
Beside us when beauty brightens,
When kindness glows
And music echoes eternal tones.
When orchids brighten the earth,
Darkest winter has turned to spring;
May this dark grief flower with hope
In every heart that loves you.
May you continue to inspire us:
To enter each day with a generous heart.
To serve the call of courage and love
Until we see your beautiful face again
In that land where there is no more separation,
Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,
And where we will never lose you again.
