My daughter, cousin and I had another glorious day going to Tumbleweeds in Niantic and then the beach at the west end of Rocky Neck. I don’t know when we will all be together again. Debbie Lynn is moving to Alaska in December. Our mothers were close, and we easily imagined them together looking down on us, glad we are as tight as the two of them, or wondering what they did wrong that their daughters grew up to be a Deadhead urban hippie and a wandering witch.  

Tonight, on my ancestor altar, I have religious medals that had belonged to each of them. I have both German and Italian foods, Samhain incense, an intention candle, and items that belonged to my mother and to her mother, remembrances for my first psychic friend, a coven sister’s husband, a Pulse nightclub massacre victim Brenda Lee Márquez-McCool, a mother of 11 who beat cancer twice and who pushed her son, celebrating his 21st birthday, out of harm’s way … and others. The candle is lit, and I am waiting for midnight to begin a simple ritual to honor my ancestors and invite them to join me. I will continue nightly through astrological Samhain. 

As we celebrate the cycle of death and rebirth, may you be blessed with the gift of remembrance.