To the mother who died June 6th, 1976 and gave me her four children four months later when I married their father...
 
All the things that have happened in forty years
Are really quite a lot.
I imagine you were observing and somehow knew
Each time your babies had a fever that was quite hot.
 
I guess you saw those fights, those scrapes, and boo boos
Every single band-aide and tetanus shot.
You saw the friends, the bike rides, the swims at the lake,
Even the sunburns and poison ivy they always got.
 
I always thought of you somewhere watching each
Triumph and tragedy that came to be.
Each time they came home with an A
Or even with a D.
 
As they grew into young teenagers did you long to
Guide them as they were attempting to run wild and free?
Did your heartache when those first crushes crushed
Them as well as me?
 
When the time came they declared themselves adults,
Did you worry about the choices made?
I guess you saw as love bloomed in their lives
And even when it began to fade.
 
You saw the grandbabies one after another bring us joy
So immense we thought it impossible to dissuade.
Until we saw three of your daughters lose a precious child,
Who had lived, laughed, loved, and played.
 
Were you there as your girls cried out to God
As to why these babies He could not have saved?
Did you welcome each grandchild into Heaven
With your arms open wide?
 
Yet wish they could have remained on earth
Lived long and not died?
I never knew you, just saw a few pictures
Of you with a nice smile.
Forty years indeed seems like a long time down here
But in Heaven, I guess it is but a while.