“Tender Mercy,” 8″x 6, Gouache by Donna Lyons © 2023
“Making that Bucket List”
By Marty Coffin Evans © 2022
Not long ago, I attended a party celebrating my friend, Diana. Caring Bridge entries about her cancer journey likely prompted this. Realizing she didn’t have many months to live, she decided to host the party rather than our doing so as we’d planned.
What a great time to celebrate with others who matter in our lives – family, colleagues from different work locations, service club members and more. Her parting gift to us – “Diana’s Bucket List.”
Introducing her list, Diana noted she had done some of the listed things and wished she could do them again. She included activities she never got to do.
What would such a list of 21 items encompass? Hers contained ones pertaining to people (9), places (6) and things (6). The “people” examples included being a grandparent (devoted, joyful, committed), reconnecting with someone not spoken to in a long time, asking for or forgiving someone needing forgiveness, and practicing gratitude every day for family (daughters in her case), friends, relatives and furry friends.
“Place” examples take us on cruises whether with Viking up a river or one through the Greek Islands, touring Ireland, canoeing the Quetico and hearing the loons again along with sitting on a beach and listening to an ocean.
Diana’s “thing” items stretch us a bit as they included volunteering somewhere, taking a class in something new, reading a book outside of what we’d usually select, mastering (not just studying) a second language and picking up/ learning a new musical instrument or revisiting one previously played.
Tucked in the middle of her Bucket List: “Take time to notice the light outside, its changes throughout the day, how it modifies the look of trees, grass, sky, clouds, mountains, and how those differences make you feel.”
Diana hoped we’d do one or more from this list in her honor. How wonderful to remember and celebrate another this way!
March 2025