Listening
By Tom from Maine, 26th Jan 2012 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutFamilyElderly Relatives
This is about my father in law during his last year on earth. I loved him dearly and valued every single minute of the 40 years I knew him. He is at peace with the Lord but we still miss him.
Listening
Listening
We sit by our father
Listening for breath.
He gave us life
Now we sit here, bereft.
He was our coach,
He is our father
Now he is a shell
Others say, “why bother?”
He is old now
His life long past
Our life is the future
How long can he last?
It is not the days
That we spend by his side
That we want back
To run and to hide.
He was by Nelle
As her kidney failed.
He offered his own
Medical science prevailed.
He bathed her wounds
And cared for her then
It’s our turn now
As on us he depends.
Tears are for later
We have shed quite a few
We can wait longer
‘til his time is through.
We ask for nothing
He never did
He was our hero
We are all still his kids
He was a giant on earth
Though only Five Seven
We call him “Big Red”
He will be a giant in heaven.
He will have many teams
To coach and inspire
As he did all of us
Causing small sparks to fire.
There was never a sport
That he did not master,
Now we watch as he fades
A human disaster.
He does not remember
All that he means
To so many on earth
On whom he now leans.
We will take his weight
Lean on us, we beseech
Yet his mind has left us
And is far out of reach.
One minute per hour
One hour per day
Is all we have left
Of Big Red, far away.
Yet, he is our father
And we are his kids
We will wait for the end
He always did.
From Tom for Nelle
“I have no words”
August 4, 2011
8:31 pm
"Big" Red died on September 15, 2011
I sit at the house, listening on the monitor, As Nelle sits with her parents in the Yellow House next door, in Lincolnville Beach, Maine. Big Red is asleep, for now, at peace.
Comments
27th Jan 2012 (#)
Hello Tom, I am in awe of your great and passionate love for your father, my children will one day be facing that same situation and I would be so honored If one of them had kind words such as these, for me. GBY. Ps. welcome to wikinut my friend, may your stay here be a long and joyful one.
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