Mom, I wrote these words from me to you & you to me. I miss you so much… ~Kit

5 May 2024, 0345 hours

For Judy Raye Nelson Carlson

HERE IT’S JUST ALWAYS HELLO

Never another goodbye?

Never a sad farewell?

Never her voice to hear on this earth?

Never our hearts to swell?

I can’t quite contain it
To not kiss your face,
No can’t frame this
never another goodbye??
Never to hear your dear sigh?

Mom, we want to touch you
To feel your Norwegian charm
Mom I want to lie next you
enwrap your small self in my arms

Mom I want to hear you
Mumble the “I love yous” so soft
Mom I want to feel you.
Speak to my soul what’s Lost!

I know you’re waiting
Right round the corner, that Bend
To meet me “Hey Kit where you been now?
There’s such a glad story to tell…

You won’t believe the place kept for me,
He’s got more rooms than we know what to do With!
With me, with Him, with Pat, Joey & Skogs
With Mabel & Elmer & Ira,
baby Phillip, Harold, Marilyn & Verma.

But the sweetest part of all, Kit, is
He’s here!
and we see Him & touch Him
and we laugh & we romp & we play!

And we worship & jump and we shout Son
Just to start & begin a fresh day
We won’t grow old round here son
We just keep growing all up in Him

It’s lovely the colors—the sights Son;
it’ll be forever to take it all in

Yes there’s animals! How could there not be? when such a Creator we’ve got

And there’s smells all the best ones you love there
Like cinnamon, earth, coffee and cedar

All the things a Norwegian girl needs here
Excepting one really big thing

It’s you, & Tim and Alida
And Nelsie & Libs and Grande
And Annika, Anna & Dembr.
I want them & Hannah, come in!

So I’m waiting for your special call home
When some word that you’ll never more hear
I think it’s something like “bye bye”
Or some kind of word like “farewell”

Cause Kit, all I’m learning in Heaven is that here it’s just always Hello
To all that’s good & perfection
To all that’s dear & compels
To hopes & to portals, & gates
Rivers, glass seas, tall trees & bright snow!

Where you’ll never get tired nor forgotten
And all that you’ve felt Down Below
Is really a taste -oh- a shadow
Of Jesus when He bids you, “Shalom!”

Kit Carlson, 5 MAY, 2024

Our final goodbye was 7 APR 24, won’t forget that precious Sunday morning Ma, or your words🇳🇴🫶🥹

https://www.craighurttfuneralhome.com/obituaries/judy-carlson

JUDY RAYE CARLSON

Blog Author: LCDR Kristian Carlson is a Navy Chaplain. He has served alongside Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, & Special Forces, and has completed three deployments. In 2020, the Navy sent him to Duke University’s Divinity School to earn a specialized Master’s Degree, ThM, in Pastoral Care, where he focused his studies on challenges facing Active Duty personnel, Veterans and their families. His specific areas of interest include care for persons with Complex Trauma, strategies for healing from PTSD, Moral Injury, & mild TBI. A key personal mission of his is to leverage the strengths of faith-based Veteran Service Organizations as strategic partners to chaplains, the VA, and the DoD in their ongoing resiliency & suicide prevention initiatives. He is married to his Chilean sweetheart, Damaris. They have two young children, who are the delight of their hearts.