Knight of Tomorrow

Last week I was determined to make time to see the cherry blossoms at the university.

My daughter, who'd finished the requirements for her bachelor's degree that Tuesday, said they were not to be missed.

Who could blame the two young men who rolled by on their skateboards, then paused to take photos  of the full pink blooms with their phones?

If my daughter had been with me, we would have smiled at the boys and at the sign prohibiting skateboards.

It was my son who told me the Daybreak Yoshino Cherry trees are part of the university's "Walk of the Heroines."

Along the curving wall beneath the trees, names of inspirational women -- both well known (Sojourner Truth, Emma Goldman) and not -- are engraved.

There's also a bronze sculpture by Linda Stein called "Knight of Tomorrow 574," a heroic everywoman.

My daughter is my heroine. And my mother. And my grandmothers. So many women, but it is the names of these four that I wear etched on my bones, that I cradle in my marrow.

Every spring, the blossoms open to the sky, then begin their soft fall. How many shoulders have they landed on?