My mother recently passed away in her local community hospital, surrounded by her family. She was 87 years old, married to my father for almost 25 years before he suddenly died, and then remarried for another 29 years. She lived a good, long life, long enough to have two of her great-grandchildren sit in her lap. I was able to talk with her before she died, to tell her I loved her. She told me she loved me, and was proud of the man that I have become. We may have had our disagreements but we achieved closure before she passed away.
I have found that navigating through grief can be a very difficult process, one I am still working through.
I have one special Second Life alt (alternate avatar), because she bears my mother’s name, Karin (the German form of the English name Karen). As a little child she became a refugee in the messy aftermath of World War II, and eventually her widowed mother (my grandmother) married a man who brought his new family over to Canada when she was still a young girl, who didn’t speak any English.
I inherited from Karin my creativity (as expressed here in Second Life) as well as her well-honed sense of humour (which I also express here in SL!). I also got from her my distinctive, piercing laugh; you can immediately tell exactly where I am sitting in a crowded (movie or play) theatre, once the first joke lands! As a child, I used to lie in bed and hear her absolutely scream with laughter at a funny television show like Carol Burnett.
So today Karin is an angel, a loose representation of what she would have looked like as a young woman in the 1960s, when I was born. The retro hairstyle is available as a free gift (in the blonde colour HUD only) at the WINGSDS booth at the ACCESS event on now; the style is called ER0526.
The head is GENUS , cobbled together from bits and pieces of the Margo Genus Morph L$88 head and head skin offer from a couple of years ago, and the more recent Limited Edition 2026 female Genus Morph head giveaway. To it, I added the Genus Morph beak nose, the same kind of nose that my mother had, and her grey-blue eyes. The angel dress and halo were gifts from the most recent round of the Doves Dream shopping event, and the wings I picked up for free using past Blueberry store credit. The body is Maitreya LaraX. The handheld candle is the gift from .Viki. booth at the SL23B Shop and Hop event, on now.
So, in a sense, this alt is my memorial to my mom.
I’m going to need to take some more time than I expected to heal; please bear with me. I am grieving, and I am feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. Thank you for your patience.