CEMETERY OF THE HEART REVISITED

 

Recently, after a long battle which cancer…a battle that lasted years…

our friend’s daughter’s lost her battle…which brought us both to tears.

Cancer! How I hate that word because from the moment the battle begins

no matter how hard a person fights…sometimes cancer wins.

There is no right way to cope with death, despite what the experts say

we muddle through our sadness our anger…sometimes we wonder why we pray.

I don’t know how her parents will ever accept their cherished daughter is gone

I wonder how from this moment…they ever will move on. 

There isn’t a person among us who has ever taken a breath

that hasn’t had to deal with loss,…and try to cope with death.

I’ve lost my mom and dad and other family and friends

It’s a basic fact of living that someday life will end.

At first the memory is fresh and the sadness can paralyze

then slowly one day out of the sadness we come to realize

that the one we lost would not want us to remain sad forevermore

and we try to go on living as we once lived before.

It’s as if when death infects us, in an instant, overnight

our world that once was filled with color, turns to black and white.

Then slowly with the help of family and friends the healing begins

and one day, if we are blessed, the color seeps back in.

And we’re able to store our memories with all the memories of those who depart

in a place I like to think of as the cemetery of the heart.

It’s a quiet, solemn place that in our heart has no parallel.

The final resting place where our fondest memories go to dwell.

Where we can walk among them any hour of any day

so the one we lost forever is never far away.

I know this may sound corny, this belief I am revealing

and I know it’s no consolation for the grief our friends are feeling

But when the burden of their grief begins to lighten…when their healing process starts

I hope their fondest memories of their daughter find a quiet place in the cemetery of their heart.