Six weeks pass between the seventeenth of February and the thirtieth of March each year, immovable as the moon and the stars and every other rhythm of the calendar. Both days come and go, irrelevant to most, but between them an entire season for those of us making good on a promise we once made to choose happiness from sadness, hope from despair, intellectual curiosity from backwardness, the thrill of the run from the sameness of the sedentary.
And as I look out my window on the last day of this peculiar season, as the sun shines from behind rain clouds at the end of a week that has brought us the first warmth of springtime, after too many moments spent with Paul Simon's Leaves that are Green playing softly in the background, pondering every beautiful metaphor of the last song when Glinda and Elphaba say goodbye, or sipping wine by the fire, quietly contemplating what I can possibly say about it all, I am as much filled with longing and loss as I was in any moment the first year we observed this season all our own.
We said goodbye to Jen one particular seventeenth of February. Today would have been her birthday.
I'm off to celebrate the memories we shared with her. The wine upon our table will be the product of once-new grapes that spring forth from old vines each spring -- a renewed expression of something incredibly familiar -- whose character is shaped by the unique wind, rain, and sunlight from the year of their harvest.
Happy birthday to our memories of you, old vines producing wonderful fruit. Those who knew you, remember you, and celebrate you still.
Memories of Jen on her birthday, from the beginning of the journey through wine and life
The Jennifer Bosanko Memorial Scholarship at The College of William and Mary celebrates a most wonderful, yet tragically short life. Jen was possessed of many talents: music, cooking, humor, business, a keen intellect and a skeptical approach to the world that made her thoughtful in conversation and resilient in spirit. She chose happiness from sadness, hope from despair, intellectual curiosity from backwardness, the thrill of the run from the sameness of the sedentary. Keep the memory of this remarkable person alive through your gift to her scholarship. Your donations will support students who, like Jen, demonstrate intellectual curiosity, industriousness, and a well-rounded approach to taking on the world.