Dear Reader,
Today a fragment of what someday may be a longer story, or maybe just a snapshot of the past…
It was atop a tall tree in a small northern New Hampshire town where the warm westerly winds of Indian summer grabbed a hold of several leaves at the end of their season. While the wind’s direction was true, each of the leaves, because of their different shapes and features, flew in slightly different directions.
Several went gently to the ground with those that had already fallen. Meanwhile, a few others were carried off by vehicles. Then, there was one that seemed to be riding an endless wind. It carried on down Main Street and through the open door of an older brick building. It cleared into the main room and came to a gentle rest on top of a shiny mahogany casket.
A slightly rotund man in a gray suit walked up the aisle towards the casket straightening the chairs as he did. Jerome Tuttle owned and operated the Tuttle Brothers Funeral Home in North Conway, New Hampshire since 1995. Having run the funeral home and been part of the community for almost thirty years, he had the privilege of meeting and knowing many of the families in and around North Conway including the man who now lay before him at rest in the mahogany casket.
Jerome straightened the last of the chairs as he approached the casket. The top was open and laying there just on the edge of the closed lower section was a leaf from a red maple.
“A most peculiar place to find you,” said Jerome as he picked up the leaf. He held the leaf between his fingers as he let out a deep sigh and looked down at the gentlemen before him. He thought it was a terrible shame to have lost this one, he was “one of the good ones” who had made it beyond the small New Hampshire town, but Bryce Morin hadn’t forgotten where he’d come from. He regularly returned to the area donating time and money every year for local efforts.
Jerome brushed back a few of Bryce’s hairs that were just a little out of place. “We need to make sure you are in tip-top shape when your mother arrives,” he said to Bryce. Looking at the leaf in his hand he reached forward and tucked into the breast pocket of Bryce’s blazer whispering to him, “May the warm winds carry you on as well my friend.”