Today I will eat strawberries

in

Today I will eat strawberries,

juicy bites of sweet sorrow,

and I will remember you,

your short cake stature

and your kind ways.

I will remember your amazement in the very small,

your love of all things strawberry,

your deviled eggs, your mischievous smile,

and how you treasured handmade gifts and cards like pieces of fine art.

Today I will eat strawberries

and I will think of you,

your stubbornness and your independence,

qualities that have been passed on to my mother

and then to me.

I will forever imagine you gleefully shouting "BINGO!"

because that makes me smile.

And one day I will eat strawberries with little Clementine

and tell her stories of her great grandmother,

"Once upon a time there was a strawberry queen..."