To Live Long and Well - Jan 13 2024

 

To Live Long and Well

Jan 13 2024

If her final years of life

had not been robbed by dementia,

would she have made it those few extra months

to the age of 100?

They way a special occasion

milestone

watershed year

fuel our will

to persevere.

Mind over body,

the life force.

But what a mercy

she did not know.

Not just of her diminished state

but perhaps also of death;

so I hope she went

free of fear

angst

regret.

And after all

we are not bookkeepers

counting up the years

as the measure of a life;

not when a life well-lived

is what we hope to leave behind.

Although she had 99 of them;

a formidable number

with a pleasing symmetry

and weight.

Spent as daughter, sister, wife,

mother

friend

librarian.

Not spent extravagantly, of course;

a Great Depression

wartime shortages

and the business ups-and-downs

are stern teachers of frugality,

a value

she couldn’t help but pass on.

We had our differences, she could be hard.

And back then, we were not touchy-feely,

found words like “love”

hard to say;

they were saved

for a special occasion

that sometimes never came.

The saving grace

is that deeds count for more.

I think, of all the roles she played

wife is what she'd claim,

a long and fruitful marriage

her greatest success.

And which lives on after death

in the children she raised

her many descendants.

I look in the mirror

and see her in my face.

I share

some of her temperament,

both the good and the bad.

I'm terrible at remembering,

but will honour her life

by living mine

as best I can.