Forever

Celia was there in the sanctuary, ringing clear in the voices of angels on earth.  We saw her in the audience too, in chubby thighs under a tiny sundress and in the faces of proud parents of performers and in all the people who made time to fill the pews and gave money to overflow the offering.  She may have been part of dogs and drinks at Dirty Franks on Friday too.
We felt her when warm rays of sun arrived after a few cold, fat raindrops at the pool, and in even warmer greetings from neighbors there who mentioned her by name.  She's been all over Facebook and Twitter and Instagram this weekend, in Hawaiian athletic circles and on shirts at school picnics.  She's with her aunt on a billboard on West Broad and in the song on the loud speaker at the supermarket.  She's in her brothers, and her cousins, in their drippy chins and sticky fingers in the strawberry fields.  She is, as much as anyone can be, forever.

*Thanks to the Greater Atlanta Girls' Choir and the Upper Arlington Chamber Orchestra  -- and to all the good people who came to the benefit concert at Broad Street Presbyterian Church -- not only for raising awareness, but also for raising nearly $1600 for research against Batten disease.