We Who Remain

We Who Remain

When my mother died I was struck by a feeling of being alone. Another of the ties with my childhood had passed from the earth. Now I was left with my brother and sisters and my family. During the time that we were sorting things and trying to settle mom's estate was the first time I can remember feeling like I was among family. That is other than when I am with my wife and children. Somewhere along the years, I had lost that feeling of having a greater family. I have a brother and sisters but some how they just hadn't felt like family. And when the house is finally sold and the estate settled, there will not be a person or a place to draw us back together. In fact unless we make a special effort to get together from time to time, we may have been together for the last time on this side of the veil. This poem was sort of my way of crying out. We must put forth an effort to stay close in spirit, even if we can't be close physically.

Gale L. Wolfenbarger

23 March 1988

We Who Remain

When momma died we met to mourn

And to settle her estate,

All of us with private grief,

But that would have to wait.

Her passing wasn't such a tragic thing;

She'd suffered pain for years.

Though it's hard to see the joy in death

When eyes are filled with tears.

Her leaving us has left a void

We all will have to fill.

We all remember things she said

And know we always will.

But we are not here left alone;

We each have one another.

And whatever else we all are now

We have a common mother.

Our mother didn't raise us all

To scatter to the wind;

It isn't her but us who'll mourn

For what we might have been.

So in this hour of sorrow

When we are all bereft.

Remember she has passed from us

And now we're all that's left.

We ought to make a solem vow

From this day on to be,

The kind of family born on earth

For all eternity.

Gale L. Wolfenbarger

9 March 1988