Thank you, Lord, for this day,
Keep my negative thoughts at bay,
when heart is heavy for missing her,
help me to know You walk with her,
when my eyes well up with tears,
help me to know, her spirit is near,
Love is eternal, Love is real,
Love is really all there is.
cfblack, 9-7-25
Archive for the ‘Family’ Category
a little prayer
September 7, 2025The soul knows
August 4, 2025The soul sometimes knows
what the mind does not,
There were many signs,
You had started to make a will
but never got it done,
You took your sister to Hawaii,
a place of your dreams,
You took us on pilgrimage
to Haifa, Israel,
You asked your dad what he wanted
for this year’s Fathers Day,
You said you missed his parents,
would like to visit them,
only two weeks later
you would do just that,
and fly to the worlds beyond.
A baby in the womb cannot imagine this life,
just as we don’t understand where you are,
Our hearts rest in the promise we will see you again,
that love is an eternal bond.
cfblack, 8-4-25
Spirit daughter
July 13, 2025Spirit daughter,
Daughter of light,
I feel your spirit
throughout the night,
Throughout this time of grief and sadness,
you are there, I am aware.
I feel you, your whole being,
all the woman that you were,
You had come into your own,
now you are flying
freer than free,
throughout the heavens,
on a new path,
a new creation that never fades,
You will always be with me,
Gratitude mingles with tears.
cfblack, 7-13-25
6 seconds
July 13, 2025I think through those last seconds of your life,
that no one wants to think about.
I NEED to think through them, feel them, know them,
because I know you, and you were strong.
You were SO brave, this was your passion.
You were happiest in the clouds,
You knew the risks! studied day and night,
took classes, learned from others,
bought altimeters, your own parachute,
and you loved to watch others land.
We still don’t know exact circumstances,
You were making your descent,
you and another got too close,
your parachutes entangled.
“Don’t delay, cut away,” you cut away your parachute,
the other diver’s chute inflated, your reserve did not,
A freefall from 800 feet
takes 6 seconds to the ground,
This is all the time you had,
as you fell into the arms of God.
Six seconds of descent,
six seconds of lift and flight,
God carried you gently, through the doorway
to new worlds of grace, and light.
cfblack, 7-12-25
poem for Jasmine
July 7, 2025They say your body has been released.
I look at your picture, your beautiful face,
Remember your laughter, your determination
to be ALL that you could be.
I look at your picture, your flowing blonde hair,
Your bright blue eyes, your faith and love.
You had the bluest eyes in the family,
Now you see all the worlds of God.
I look at your picture, your smiling face,
Do you know, how much I love you?
Send me a sign, please be my angel,
Be happy, wherever it is you are.
I can’t picture life without you,
You were my bright and shining star!
The way you fought what life threw at you,
Wrote in journals,
Memorized prayers,
You felt so free when you were flying,
Now you fly through the worlds of God.
Your broken body, your broken bones,
It was immediate, you felt no pain,
You cut your chute, the other one lived,
Saving one is better than losing two,
And whoever you are, know we are HAPPY for you.
Jasmine, you did everything right,
You did the only thing left to do,
You were perfect in every way,
We all have flaws, but you had few,
I don’t know how we will live without you,
Please pray for me, as I pray for you.
cfblack, 6-25-25
Immigrants
June 13, 2025
Here are 2 immigrants, Klass Hanstra and Gieske Ijkamp Hanstra, my great-great-grandparents. They are parents to Katherine Hanstra, who married my great-grandfather, Wopke Plantinga. Katherine and Wopke had 11 children, my grandfather being the oldest. My grandfather, George Plantenga, was born 5 months after Katherine & Wopke’s marriage, so they never celebrated his birthday which was Oct.15, 1893. Wopke changed his name to William. Klass and Gieske changed their names to Clarence and Gertrude, here in America. The goal was to sound as “English” as possible, since that was the dominant group in America.
Klass and Gieske were born in Friesland, the Netherlands. Friesland is an area on the NW coast of Holland (Netherlands). They spoke their own language of “Frisian” as well as Dutch. Klass was specifically born in Stiens, Leeuwarderadeel, Friesland, Netherlands, on June 2, 1828. Gieske was born in an area of Friesland called Het Bildt on April 22, 1838. Their marriage was Sept.1, 1864. They arrived in America in 1894, with onley TWO of their 6 children. Only “Pietje” (age 18) and “Tjitske” (age 11) are listed on the passengr list. For “occupations”, father Taeke said “laborer”, mother Gieske said “wife” and their 2 children were “servants”. (I think that meant they would work as domestic servants, which most of the young girls did.) All their 6 children were: 1 boy (Taeke, later “Charles” in America); and 5 girls: Grietje (Margaret), Trijntje (Katherine), Pietje (Nellie), Jantje (Jessie), and Tjitske (Jennie). Their first-born is listed as “Levinloos kind”, meaning “lifeless child”. —- They settled where the Dutch tended to go: Chicago, and later moved south of there to my hometown, Lafayette, Indiana, which is where they are buried. NONE of them worried about their workplace being raided or themselves being handcuffed in front of their children and taken to some cold PRISON or DEPORTED back to HOLLAND!! They also remained poor in America, mostly the men working odd jobs or FARMING and selling vegetables. They were serious Puritan-type people. It’s amazing I have a picture of them.
cfblack, 6-13-2025
Road Trip
May 25, 2025Riding in the back seat of a car to Charleston
Takes me back to 10 years old,
Riding in the backseat of a station wagon
For days on end. No air conditioning,
To California, San Diego, Disneyland, Yosemite,
Northern Redwoods, Grand Canyon, Zion, the Badlands,
Looking for fossils, camping, riding a stage coach or a horse,
sand dunes, walking trails, the Great Lakes, waterfalls,
Canada, Lake Huron, Mexico, a bull fight.
my dad’s yellow raft, with him paddling a river.
My family was adventurous, these were our summers, when my dad escaped the stress of his academic life,
These were our times, family vacations,
Times for us to get away, spend days together.
You think you have a lifetime, then realize it’s over,
and these are the moments you have.
The days you look back on, the times you cherish,
the memories are what last forever.
cfblack, 5-25-25
March lament
March 14, 2025Treefrogs trill in the trees that enjoyed a sprinkling of rain
from the clouds that last night hid the red moon eclipse,
Pretty black cat joins me on the back porch,
but as I sit, my fingers turn cold as ice from a light breeze blowing;
I return inside, to the warmer air of my daughter’s kitchen,
and await the heat of Summer.
cfblack, 3-14-25, Pi Day
The piano
February 20, 2025I remember the day you came to us,
Excitement intense and real,
I was the one who mastered you,
who played for hours on end.
Four years learning to play your keys,
to lift my fingers,
prance them along,
to play with emotion and haunting beauty,
There were times I would stop, sit in silence,
cry, tears rolling down my cheeks,
Frustrated, not moving,
staring at the keys,
until my Father called to me,
“Later, take a break,” he said,
“Come back to play it later.”
and I thought, one day, you might be mine,
to play in joy and solitude.
When my mother passed, there was no way
to bring you to the South,
so you went to our oldest daughter’s house
and lived there for awhile,
Until one day, she gave you away, to another family,
their daughter wanted to learn to play,
and so, you went to them.
There was too much symbolism
to bring you here, even if we wanted,
the meaning of you took on other hues,
of shadows and of sorrow,
so once again, I now release
the pain of former years,
Detach myself from physical things,
thick with meaning and memory,
You travel on, away from me
to the home of a total stranger,
while I am left, as a little girl,
with memories that haunt, and linger.
cfblack, 2-7-14, revised 2-19-25
Siblings
March 23, 2024Sometimes I imagine
my brother’s still alive,
he did not die of liver disease,
and he was never homeless,
I imagine him healthy, I imagine him, whole,
being the big brother he wanted to be.
I also imagine
the four of us, friends,
posing for a picture together,
laughing because, we never get it right,
one of us not smiling, or turning our head,
Boy, girl, girl, boy,
16 years from start to end,
We are all getting older now,
We don’t have much time, to lose.
It’s just the 3 of us now,
In the end, we all walk the path, we choose.
cfblack, 3-24-2024
Doctor Grandma 