One year ago today

This is a poem I wrote about my Grandma and about the day she passed away - December 30, 2007.

One year ago today
I watched you fighting hard to breathe
Then drawing breaths more slowly.
Between each breath it looked
As though you were already gone.
And then you were.

We searched in vain for your heartbeat.
How strange you didn't have one
When moments before you were with us!
Yet why did I feel such surprise?

Wasn't this the expected outcome
Of hospice care
Of so many hospital visits
Of a painful diagnosis
Of retiring
Of working
Of traveling
Of having grandchildren
Of going through divorce
Of moving to the desert
Of four kids in five years
Of marrying young
Of growing up in the mountains
Of being given life
Of living on this earth?

And yet we're shocked.
(We're always shocked)
Those still struggling to breathe
In a world where you are not
Drawing breaths of thankfulness
That this is not a world
Where you have never been.

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Photo by me.