FOREVER YOUNG
When my grandmother died
She held my grandfather's hand.
She looked up at him with pale, soft, water-blue eyes.
She squeezed his hand very tightly.
My Mother told me.
I met her at the airport
In another hemisphere
Two days after she died.
I didn't know she was gone
Until I saw my mother's face.
She told my mother,
"Don't wait.
Go to America.
Kate will need you."
My mother and grandmother said goodbye.
My grandmother told my grandfather,
"Don't be afraid .
You'll be all right.
You have the children."
She said goodbye to him - holding his hand.
Driving back from the airport
Joan Baez sang 'Forever Young'.
There is my grandmother -
Softly smiling, twinkling.
Round shoulders, red veins in her cheeks,
Wrinkled hands spotted by the Australian sun,
Baggy grey pants, tight knitted green cardigan.
My grandmother, forever young.
My father is young too
Like his mother
My grandmother.
It's all that energy.
I miss my grandmother,
The laughter and kindness,
Her courage and wisdom,
Enthusiasm and Energy.
Years later, I asked my old grandfather
"Tell me about Granny."
He told me, finally, how she died,
Holding his hand, very tightly, for him.
I didn't say goodbye to her.
I keep her within me
In memories, through stories we tell.
And through Energy - from her to me.
Forever Young.
Probably written about 1991 or '92.
Photo credit: Maksym Masur (Unsplash)
The great gift of moving house, if you can do it right, is sorting - tossing stuff and finding stuff. I found a folder of old poetry. It was from back in the days when you typed it up, and didn’t put dates on because it felt so … private? Unimportant to anyone but you. Well, in the years since then, I have learned that sometimes the private can be universal and, inadvertently, important to others.
I still miss this grandmother and, since then, my energetic father and kind mother who came across the seas and delivered the news, have also left. I am blessed by all of them. To all of you who’ve lost a dear one, keep telling the stories. It keeps them young and perhaps helps light the darkness of loss for another.