Dear Editor:

Since spring is here, we felt we should remember our dear friend, Mary Jo Zimmerli.

She was our minister in Maryland for eight years at Sudbrook United Methodist Church. We remember the 18-hour days she often spent helping our congregation with their problems, visiting hospitals, nursing homes, etc.

Mary Jo married both our two sons and christened our twin granddaughters.

She and Bob introduced us to Maine in 1988. We came to visit for a week and fell in love with many places there. We have been vacationing in Boothbay Harbor ever since. The sons, wives and grandchildren love it, too.

We miss her terribly and felt we had to send a poem Mary Jo had written many years ago. It is so her.

From a Caterpillar to a Butterfly

From a caterpillar to a butterfly. Impossible you say?

To crawl on the ground then soar in the sky!

To inch along, seldom changing direction,

Then to be lifted skyward on the winds of change.

Unbelievable you say?

To look around and see only dirt, and then to look down to dirt rearranged into beauty and flowers and grass.

Not in my lifetime you say?

Change caterpillar. Revel in your metamorphosis.

Laugh until your laughter reaches the clouds.

Dry until your tears wash away sorrow.

Run until your energy produces positive good.

Work until your action is reincarnated into love.

Study until you learn to accept difference with joy.

Pray until you feel God praying through you.

You have become a butterfly little one.

You are beautiful and free.

You can soar and achieve your hopes.

You can now make your dreams a reality.

You can look at life with a new perspective.

You have become transformed!

Change little caterpillar.

Life is calling for a new you.

A new form in which to grow.

A new lifestyle to pursue.

A new set of values to live by.

A new you.

God has made you capable of change.

God has given you the gift of a new life

God has prepared you to fly.

God has made you to become.

But caterpillar — only if YOU dare to change.

—Reverend Mary Jo Zimmerli

The Dowell family

Baltimore, Md.