Decades with Mom

    My first ten years

    You fed me, changed my sheets

    Not always easy, cleaning messes, wiping

    You organized my disorders, and tidied

    My world, my room, my toys and collections

    Like any mother, you loved me and let me roam

    

    Took me swimming, traveling, Cub Scouting

    Trips and beaches and family, friends

    Garage and yard sales

    Visiting teaching with elderly sisters

    Holidays and movies, rides and vacations

    My next ten years

    I grew from small and fast

    To big and slower

    Stronger, at times sick

    My mom watched me grow

    Change, move, learn

    

    She fed me regularly

    Home cooked meals 

    or food on the town

    Down back streets or alleys

    We went to the temple

    Church

    Watched shows in the home

    My third decade

    I was married

    My mom could visit

    But me to her, with

    Wife and children

    Was more common

    More meals 

    At holidays

    Holding grandbabies

    

    Going away

    As missionaries

    Example

    of service

    Acquiring jewelry 

    and selling wares

    Befriending folks

    of all classes

    My fourth decade

    Life brought work

    But pleasure to visit

    Still-- my mom, always 

    Pending, present, curious

    Sharing of life, family, food

    I talked from

    Afar, the 

    Diagnosis came 

    One more year

    and change

    into my fourth decade

    She survived 

    CANCER 

    when I was ten; this

    time it could 

    

    not relent

    So now it has

    been a decade, since

    Mom moved on

    

    A decade here without her

    Perhaps more decades to go

    Who is say when we will

    come and leaave?

    Come and go.

    Return to breathe 

    OR exhaust our last breath

    The decades are counted 

    Backwards and forth

    

    We look to God

    And live

    We receive from 

    Mother and grow

    I look 

    AROUND

    AND see

    Mother 

    and me

    Always 

    together

    Always 

    Eternal

    Always

    Forever

    Alive