From: willamj [willamj@email.msn.com]

Sent: Sunday, August 13, 2000 9:11 PM

To: Openletter@mail.kinkele.net

Subject: To the family of Lt. j.g. Scott Kinkele from Helen Olson, Navy

widow, age 80

The Ship

I am standing upon the seashore

A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze

and starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her

until at length she is only a speck of white cloud

just where the sea and sky meet and mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side exclaims, "There, she's gone!"

Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all.

She is just as large in hull and mast and spar

as she was when she left my side,

and just as able to bear her load of living freight

to the place of her destination.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "She's gone,"

there are other eyes watching for her coming

and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "There, she comes!"

And that is dying.

With Sincere Sympathy from Helen Olson, Snohomish, Wa. Navy Widow.