Just before waking this morning, my last dream was about a pair of women talking. It was very much like last night, when John & I took Anne to Pineville Tavern after Jane Bostock DeCharm's memorial service. Two women were talking in back of me; I could hear their voices - talking about children's triumphs, a lot of interesting things leaving an impression of full, far-from-drab lives - but not see them.
This morning, it was identical. Two women, quite close, speaking but not visible. And the same sort of topics, ones that created an impression of accompishment, making worthwhile use of time, rich experiences. They were apparently talking about hair, because one woman said, "You know whose hair I like a lot? Mim Lockhart's." And the other woman eagerly replied, "Yes! That bold straight cut, no fussing with layering or feathering or all that fuss."
And they were off & running, talking about my sister with the same sort of tone that they brought up daughters working for Boeing or sons at Princeton.
Did the other know that she (Mim) was currently in San Francisco? Sounds of approval & a little awe before wondering how she could feel up to it. Then a few words about Kerry & Australia.
What fascinated me on waking up before hearing more about the Down Under bit was the tone of the dream women's voices. It was the same one I often heard people use talking about Mim. Almost as if just knowing her was a spiritual experience. How does a younger sister measure up to that? Had forgotten all about it until the dream. The feeling that Mim made others feel ... bigger, deeper, more spiritual. That Mim wasn't about this mundane world, which she clearly distained, from which she distanced herself. She lived on a higher plane.
At 63, at 5:01 a.m., an epiphany. The sense I always got from Mim, from my parents, from so many people who met her, was that my sister lived on a higher plane. And she never had to do anything to convey that, she simply had to be. Just being would be her blessing to the rest of the world.
