"Love Never Dies" by Phyllis Castelli

 – an angel of compassion

Grief never becomes an easy companion.

Phyllis Castelli returned home to Henderson, North Carolina, after retiring from her music career. She spends time with her lifetime special interests: writing, music, photography, a pollinator garden, and Black Labrador Retrievers. Phyllis loves to create projects that knit together the beauty of those favorites.

Phyllis’s poems and essays have appeared in Quillkeepers Press, The Avocet, Scarlet Leaf Review, and Tar River Poets, among others. As a child poet, she published Gentle, I Think, a book of poems with pen and ink illustrations.

Author’s Talk

Phyllis Castelli and Gracie

Gracie’s story needed to be told, though the telling was heartbreakingly sad.

It comforts me that Gracie might still touch a few more hearts. Oh, how we miss her.

The ongoing slide show of memories from my time with Gracie reminds me of the joy, the playfulness, the quiet comfort of her company, and the love she poured into every piece of her life. Whenever the memories come, I wallow in them, like jumping into a pile of leaves, thankful to celebrate the privilege of knowing a remarkable dog.

If I pay attention and carefully carry forward what I learn from sharing life with my dogs, I will surely be a better human being. I watch the antics of our new puppy, Cara, as she grows and learns. Although she relentlessly torments her doggie brother, Oliver, Cara now comes gently to me for quiet snuggles and conversation. I strongly suspect that Cara is her own kind of angel. Then again, aren’t they all?

The poet L. R. Knost wrote: 

Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world.

All things break, and all things can be mended.

Not with time, as they say, but with intention.

So go,

Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally,

The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.