She suddenly knows the answers
To Life’s secrets.
I can feel it in her whispering
The words I can’t quite make out -
The way a voice sounds
After the body it used to speak through
Is no longer.

I wake and look at my watch.
It is just before 3 am in Pennsylvania –
Just ready to strike midnight in Oregon
On the eve of St. Valentine’s Day.

Her breath breaks our vigil
Into tiny, gasping fragments,
The labor of her lungs
Reaching for
….just
……..one
………… more

The agony of waiting for the next,
The wondering
If it is her last.

We wish her to remain;
Yet greater, still,
We plead for her release
From the anguish of
Her final days.

Suddenly, in my mind,
I see her, there,
Floating above her own
Quietly failing vessel.

She sees our sorrow,
And wishes it not to be so.
For in her new state,
She means to get our attention,
To tell us she is well – she says
“Look! I’m here! I’m alright!
I can see, I can hear, I’m YOUNG!
I can DANCE!!”

Then she is laughing,
Running toward the misty light.
Looking back at us as she does.

For one last, shimmering moment,
We see her,
In her favorite dress,
Healthy and whole,
And in need of not one single thing.

She pauses,
Just at the edge of finality.
Just long enough for us to see –

An unbelievably young and
Dapper Grandpa
Waits to greet her.
He holds out his hand,
Simply asks,
“May I have this dance?”

With a giddy nod to him,
She waves to us,
And glides expertly into their rhythm,
To that great eternity beyond,
And to that peace which passes
All understanding.

02/14/2013

Author's Note: My Meme, the most beautiful creature ever, slipped from this world to the next early early this morning. I am glad she is relieved of her suffering; sad for the hole she's left in our lives.

Posted on 02/14/2013
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