Beata’s mother, Lucyna, passed away on Tuesday afternoon.

From the instant she met me, very soon after Beata and I married in 1993, Lucyna — Mom — accepted me completely, in a way that moves and warms me every time I think of it.

Mom was a deeply kind soul, generous to a fault.

She loved quietly.

Remembering, I feel it in those deep places opened by grief.

I will miss her so much.

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15 years ago, Beata’s father Jan passed away (at the young age of 63). An enthusiastic explorer, playful in his approach to business and life, I was just beginning to know him. I have very often longed for what I know would have been a deep friendship illuminated by his fine mind and warm, adventurous heart.

26 and 22 years before that, when my brother and I lost our mother and father to long illnesses, we became acutely sensitive to the presence or absence of family, to the very few individuals that have opened in the rarest of ways.

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With Lucyna’s passing, our son Levi no longer has a living grandparent.

And a large hole in our world has become even bigger.

I used to believe we have had great misfortune. While, in some ways, this is true, I have come to realize that not so many people have been privileged with the intensity of love and inspiration that has been ours.

For those four grandparents of Levi were each giants in their own way.

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Lucyna passed away on Tuesday afternoon.

She who loved quietly, faithfully, now rests in Infinite Love.

I will miss her so much.