Cay Horner Memorial Gathering

Cay Horner Memorial Gathering

in Her San Jose Home, California

Saturday, September 8, 2018

By Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

Preface: On Saturday, September 8, 2018, I met Ann at Los Altos Library at 3:05 pm, where she drove us to 15766 Highland Drive, San Jose. Cay's daughter, Jane Mulcaster emailed me on August 6 that her Mom, Cay Horner died in her sleep on July 22, 2018, and invited me to a Memorial Gathering at Cay's home at 4 pm, Sept. 8. Cay was my best friend Connie's hiking companion. After Connie's passing on 9-9-2016, Cay sent me her poem "With Connie on the Trail" promptly. Wrote a poem "Sweetest Sacred Sound" (7-6-2007) about Cay's horrific head-on collision that left her in a coma for four weeks. Because of a typo "sacred" for "scared" in Jane's email on Cay's first words "sacred, very shaken" on awakening from coma, I told Jane that the first words were sacred since God said "Let there be light" and sound came before light, and sound waves are turbulent & shaken. Now it dawned on me that Cay's first words "scared, very shaken" were her last memory after the collision. Her car was totally demolished, so she was "very shaken and scared". Cay and
Connie took me to Henry Cowell Redwoods hike and Pillar Point Bluff Trails, where we went down the cliffs and gathered seashells
on the beach. Cay invited Connie and me for Thanksgiving dinner in 2005 that I recall fondly. She would share photos from her hikes while I send my poems which she enjoyed. After learning of Cay's passing, wrote "Memories of Cay Horner" (8-19-2018) and shared
it at the Gathering. Enjoyed meeting the artist Jeanne Mort Wardrip, whose landscape paintings graced on the walls of Cay's home.
Refreshing to hear Julie's and Jane's stories of her Mom, and Meg's poems about her grandma. Connie was right that Cay's house
is a museum. Below are photos of Cay's home, a treasure trouve from a wonderful woman and great friend of Connie and me.