Laura’s Ashes (Ashes to Ashes)
18" x 20", 2005
Acrylic on canvas
Two weeks after Laura died the funeral home called, and said we could pick up the ashes. When Rachel and I arrived, we were handed a plastic shopping bag with the funeral home’s logo printed on it. It contained a white cardboard box which held the ashes. I put it into my knapsack. We got on the subway, and went home. Without thinking about it for even one second, I took the box out of the bag, and set it on top of our kitchen cabinets, where it still sits.
Unable to grasp the full meaning of our loss, the ashes seem to represent a connection to Laura that I am not ready to let go of.
The painting shows me sitting at our kitchen table, holding the box of Laura’s ashes. I cannot comprehend that she is dead. The white door is the door to our closet, where our clothes still hang side by side. It is open, with the hope that Laura will again pass through it, and return to me.
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Time Stood Still
Not a day goes by
That I’m not missing you
When the wind whistles
through my window
I hear you whisper
Your clothes in the closet
Sing your sweet songs
As they sway to and fro
Above your sandals and shoes
Next to mine
Ed Rath , 4 April 2005
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