my mom's first cousin

twenty years my senior

she loved the paintings of Wolf Kahn
the prose and poems of Maxine Kumin
the spiritual writings of David Steindl-Rast

she had a cat named Slick
who loved to lap water from a running faucet

she had a wonky coffee-maker

a half-pint puddle of coffee on her countertop

she cherished the Benedictines of Weston Priory

she had a fireplace against the chill of mid-October nights

we went hiking together up some small mountain in Vermont

she took me to the many cheerful bookshops of Putney and Brattleboro

she'd been long-divorced from her first and only husband

she would poke gentle fun at herself for being grey-haired and pudgy