Mother's Day and Ever After

I held off till midnight the day after so you could perhaps understand
better why this day is not quite like the Mother's Day you have come to expect.
Everyday is Mother's Day for this son who lost his mom at the age of five.

Go ahead, appreciate
celebrate
this glorious date
for your Father's mate,

but try to relate
to the words I now state
before it's too late -
for this is my fate.

The Mother I so cherish
did all too soon perish
in front of our eyes.
These are not lies.

We heard her last cry
my sisters and I
tried to wipe our eyes dry,
still wet though we try
we can't say Goodbye.

Forever I must live
with those memories of old -
and why not, for to me
they're more precious than Gold.

What I relate to you now
is what's rarely been told.
Until now, getting older
and increasingly bold.

That night we never slept.
In her dying arms we wept
unable to help - we were terribly young,
and awfully inept !

We were three siblings and Dad
round her bed, beyond sad.
Thoughts of days we once had
left us shaken, half-mad.

Sheila coughed as she bled
her last moments in bed
while her eyes on us fed
one last time.

All too soon, we were torn
from her love. We were shocked
suddenly less-cared for,
unwillingly unlocked
from her tender and warm,
always-gentle embrace
with nothing and no one
to stand in her place.

Or so it seemed.......

For there were angels around
though we never did know.
On that night we were too busy
letting all our tears flow.

Three sisters, three women
with no kids of their own
took us in, and adopted us.....
now see how we've grown !

The three women were Winifred, Victoria and Charity Miller, but I
always like to think of them as Faith, Hope and Charity because they
certainly exemplified those qualities. I recently celebrated their role in
my life in a blogpost dated March 7, 2010

Earlier Mother's Day posts :
http://virtualpoona.blogspot.com/2007/05/happy-mothers-day.html

http://virtualpoona.blogspot.com/2007/05/honor-your-mother_11.html

http://virtualpoona.blogspot.com/2009/05/happy-mother-day-2009.html