How Do I Do Sad ?

   Do you have a someone who loves you regardless ? Someone whose love you never question . It is written on their every gesture , every expression , in  their every fluid movement . I am not talking about a lover's love but of a love a person has for another being . It is  a sexless love .
   I visited one of my favorite people who loves me like that . She is a woman in  her middle 80"s and I have known her since I was 7 years old . That's over 40 years .....40 years . She has always had vibrant red hair and has been wildly eccentric . To some people she may be viewed as a kooky old broad but to me she has always been magnificent .
  As a child , I would visit her along with my mom . She would serve tea or coffee in the afternoon along with a cake of some sorts . I considered this highly grand ! There I sat next to her , eating my cake and drinking my tea , as she told story upon story of her life . From her capture by the Nazi and placed in a workers camp ,  to her marriage and motherhood . I couldn't get enough . To me , her life was exciting . To me , SHE was magnificent .
   As I sat in her living room  this week , I noticed she looked  everyone of her 80 odd years . She is aging and I can't bear it . How do I do sad ? It is heartbreaking to me that this woman who has treated me better than a daughter , who has a special place in her heart just for me , who has never said an unkind word or reprimanded me . . . . . . . . . her health is failing .
  She represents my childhood . She represents the good in my childhood . On her fingers she wears many rings but these rings are not of sapphire or diamond . No , her rings are colorful ,wild and eccentric like her . They are coral , opal , tigers eye , lapis .. . ......she gave me the tigers eye in memory of her . I wear it almost everyday . I am the daughter she always wanted .