“Beautiful….full of Druid intention…Now, I am sure that you and Wally have done all this before, in many other lives. The ritual of Memorial Day-the late spring….the circle complete in every way…for this time, at least…’Until you meet again’ becomes all the more meaningful.”

Those words from a friend shortly after our family gathered for a cook-out (which we ate in, since, of course it was too rainy and cold to eat out) turned my head around once more. We’d just scattered his ashes in a fine layer over the garden bed that his cousin, wife and I had made the week before. The next day it looked like it had been spread with lime.

 I promptly started putting in the many plants – some from friends, some from wild parts of our own garden, some from seed – into the pale, bone-colored soil. By the time I was done he’d disappeared into the composty, rich dirt, a mere grain of white here and there the only sign of his presence. Yet, I love knowing that forever his bits and pieces will be nourishing whatever grows there.

Though it wasn’t my intention to make a grave of it, already there’re a couple of little flags (brought from the Memorial Day parade that day), a birdbath (the one we gave our daughter-in-law some years ago and which she offered back “for the old man”), the plastic “Wizard” logo off some piece of equipment that I dug up with the compost, a beanpole teepee with a bird feeder, and finally, little Jack’s RIP stone, a lucky find amongst our many rock piles. Overall, I think he’d like it.

 How can you be more grounded than all that? In the ground, memorialized, pushing up daisies. And then those words: “Until you meet again …. ”

For a couple whose courtship included visits to various Spiritualist events, this, our first very personal, most wrenching encounter with actual death, belied all of them. One memorable night we sat through a service at Augusta’s Spiritualist Church where I got a credible message from my dead uncle. We visited Temple Heights a few times. We attended his mother’s wedding at Camp Etna (central Maine’s Spiritualist camp), where we sat with a squirmy one-year old in our laps and watched the ceremony officiated by a medium, an elderly woman in a long gown.

 On top of it all, we moved into a house well-known at the time to be inhabited by ghosts. And so it seemed to us at the time. Of course, a 150-year-old house has seen its share of death. A young woman dead of TB, an old man dead of being old, a teen-ager dead in a truck roll-over. How many more not remembered, but I can imagine.

 So invisible vehicles pulled into the driveway, doors opened mysteriously, the piano played, a rocker rocked. One of our sons felt cold spots, saw the hair on his arm stand up; he just knew. I watched something flicker up the stairs, sensed presences now and then, late at night, up with babies.

 None of this scared us. Well, maybe the young son was a bit freaked, but he seems to have survived. Then we added a death of our own; my dad died in the front room (to be followed more than 30 years later by his son-in-law). Except for the dramatic tumble of a pile of firewood the night he died, even as we spoke of him, wondering where he’d gone, Dad’s spirit has been quiet.

 We often wondered about how people came back. Would we know each other in the next life? Had we in previous lives? Was he once my sister, or me his best friend, or? We, or at any rate, I, didn’t doubt there could be many lives. (By the way, just for the record, I have several different scenarios planned for my next lives – sheep farmer, medical researcher, portrait artist.) I used to think about how we’d meet again in one of those future lives, if we’d recognize each other. Perhaps our meeting in this life was just another reunion of many. Comforting isn’t it?

 All of us, his sons, their wives, me – we waited for signs. We’ve had some: the bird I stepped on in the pre-dawn dark the night after he died; an electric candle, its bulb firmly unscrewed that came on in the night; the small metal charm spelling out “Wally” in script that one daughter-in-law found in a box of rug rags; the smell of pipe smoke in a Switzerland bedroom; a son’s dream of him complete with instructions for future behavior. Signs, or illusions our own minds have concocted?

 But at the end he’d expressed to several people his belief that this was it. Blink and you’re gone. Nothing after. Nothing more. I’ve begun to believe that too in these past months. And then those words “the circle complete in every way…for this time, at least…’Until you meet again’” and I’m wondering all over again.

 I think a lot about what he’s missing as spring finally unfolds, though of course he isn’t. He relinquished this life gladly at the end of last January, giving it up without complaint, saying good-bye to everyone who came to see him, keeping his sense of humor about him until he could no longer respond. He was tired. I have a glimpse of that myself sometimes.

 For now, the lovage is taking hold, along with the black hollyhock, Bible leaf or costmary, yarrow, Queen of the Prairie which he dug for me near an old cellar hole years ago, and some things to climb the teepee – morning glories, canary creeper, and scarlet runner beans which he loved. Lots more. Come by later in the season and I’ll show you around.

Town Meeting Week

There are two town events to remember this week: Tuesday, June 13, is voting day for town officials as well as on Article 5, the capital wastewater account. The polls in the school gym are open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. For those who make this a dual trip expect to find a table of goodies for sale, benefiting United Christian Church’s winter fuel account.

 Then Thursday, June 15 Lincolnville’s annual Town Meeting will be held at the Community Building, 18 Searsmont Road, starting at 6 p.m. where we’ll vote on the rest of the warrant. Though usually held at the school, this year the eighth grade graduation at 5 p.m. that day takes precedence.

 Pick up a copy of the Town Report at the Town Office, Drake Corner Store, Western Auto, Dot’s, Beach Store, Mike’s Align and Repair or at the polls on Tuesday. You can also see it online at the town’s website. Sounds like there’s no excuse for anyone not being able to see what we’re voting on! The Town Report has a lot more information than just the warrant. These little booklets become an important historical record of what’s going on in Lincolnville in any given year.

 This year’s Town Report is dedicated to the young daughters of our Town Administrator, David Kinney – Isabella and Maren Kinney. On an August morning last summer the girls, then 11 and 9 years old respectively, found their father unconscious. “Acting quickly, calmly and beyond their years, the girls, by calling 911 and answering the dispatcher’s questions and following the instructions given, set in motion a series of events that included Lincolnville Firefighters, Northeast Mobile Health Services (our ambulance service), the staff at Waldo County General Hospital, Lifeflight and a medical team at Maine Medical Center that ultimately saved [their father’s] life.”

LSD and Wastewater Capital Fund

That’s the Lincolnville Sewer District, by the way, and the Wastewater Capital Fund will move their own project forward as well as establishing a reserve fund for future needs in other parts of town, particularly the Nortons Pond area. As the signs all around town tell us, it’s only $6 on $100,000 of valuation on our taxes, a small price to pay up front. Should we get into real trouble with our shores and ponds becoming polluted we’d be on the hook to remedy them anyway, so a “yes” vote now may prevent future problems. Read more about it here.

Lincolnville Improvement Association

Everyone is invited to come do needlework this Tuesday, June 13 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Lincolnville Community Library. This group meets every second and fourth Tuesday of the month and welcomes knitters, crocheters, quilters, and anyone else who enjoys getting together with others to work on their projects. 

 The Lincolnville Community Library has a new collection of award-winning books for young readers thanks to a generous grant from the Maine Community Foundation’s Rose and Samuel Rudman Library Trust. Since receiving the grant this spring, the library has purchased more than forty books that have recently won the Caldecott Medal or Honor, Newbery Medal of Honor, Maine Student Book Award, or Chickadee Award. The list of new books also includes several classics such as Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White and the entire Little House collection by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

 Since opening about three years ago the library has relied almost entirely on books donated by generous community members to build its collection. This grant from the Rudman Library Trust has enabled the library to expand that collection with a large number of excellent award winners and classics to have available for young readers and their families.

 The Rose and Samuel Rudman Library Trust was established in 1986 to help libraries better serve Maine communities with a population of less than 10,000. According to the Maine Community Foundation, Samuel Rudman frequently traveled throughout Maine on business and was struck by the number of libraries he saw and their clear commitment to learning and reading. He and his wife wanted to encourage libraries in smaller communities to continue to expand their services.

There's a lot going on in Lincolnville Center the weekend of June 17 and 18.  Saturday the Lincolnville Center Indoor Flea Market continues will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Community Building. Several new vendors will be joining the popular returning ones. In addition to antiques and collectibles, hand crafts, and household items, three new products will be offered for sale including SharePlum, a FDA tested natural functional food product which removes toxins internally, HHA, a plant based soap free cleansing product, and doTERRA essential oils.  Refreshments including breakfast casserole, quiche, and baked goods will be for sale by members of the United Christian Church.

 On Sunday, Celtic harpist Alex Bigney will perform in concert at 4:00 p.m. at the United Christian Church.  “Alex performs traditional Celtic tunes, along with many original compositions. When Alex Bigney plays, the harp laughs, sighs, dances a jig, and cries a lament. Family tradition is at the heart of his music. His great-great-grandpa was the village fiddler in Kirkmount, Nova Scotia, and Alex plays the harp with the same spiky rhythm and Scotch snap that got folks kicking up their heels in his grandpa's day.” Now there’s testimonial!

Following the concert, there will be a reception in the Community Building along with an exhibition of Pastor Susan Stonestreet’s photography. Susan “has looked through a camera lens for almost thirty years seeing the often overlooked wonders of Nature and sacred places of all kinds, … [photographing] in the United States, Russia, New Zealand, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Ireland.  Her work will be on display from June 18 to June 25. She

Are you doing any spring clean-out, looking to give away stuff? The Women’s Club is holding an indoor tag sale at the LIA building on Saturday, June 24 from 8 a.m. to noon. Proceeds will go to support local scholarships, donations to Sussman House and to Christmas by the Sea.

 Donated items – assorted kitchen items; books and bric-a-brac; candle sticks and craft items; pretty dishes and puzzles...tools and trinkets can be dropped off Friday, June 23, 9 – 10 a.m. Please, no clothing or appliances that plug in.

Check These Out at Town Meeting

The United Christian Church has found a few things in the cellar that need to find a new home. See them when at Town Meeting Thursday, or at Soup Café:

One sturdy 1940' vintage table with interesting spring mechanism. Approximately 115" long X 31" wide X 23.5" high

 28 storm wooden windows 31" wide X 58" high six rows of four panes covered with clear plastic

 Various sized door skin plywood sheets with one side painted by LCS kids for the town's bicentennial.

 Make a donation to the UCC and they’re yours!

Correction!!

Emilia Carbone writes: “This is the last week we will have seedlings for sale at the farm stand. They have passed their peak so they are all half price. 2" pots are now $1.50 and six packs are $3. They will bounce back quickly once they get in the ground so finish your garden this week! We still have onions, tomatoes, peppers plus a few others left. Our self serve farm stand is on Hope Road/ Rt. 235 on the Lincolnville line. Our seedlings are all organic and our stand is open Monday - Saturday 9-7.”