I wrote this poem 13 years ago when my father-in-law died. I am posting it on my blog as a tribute to a few great men who have recently left this world – all of them fathers, so very important to their families who will miss them dearly, as we still miss Al.
The line of people wound through the candlelit rooms
and spilled into the starry night.
They came, and came, and kept on coming
to pay their respects to a man
who touched their lives.
They came to say goodbye to a man
who lived life on his own terms,
to the fullest.
They came to remember a man
who spoke his heart and, in his own words,
lived a wonderful life.
They came, and came, and kept on on coming
to give comfort to a family
whose knot has come undone –
a family that will form a new knot
in the thread of love and beauty and dignity
that runs through them,
strengthening it for the mending that
will be done.
And in the end,
as in the beginning,
the thread will shimmer with the spirit of the man
for whom they came.
photo credit: jenny downing via photopin cc