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shiori_makiba) wrote2016-02-23 12:02 pm
Poem: A Father's Love
kay_brooke for the February 2016 Thank Muse Its Friday session.Note: George is not part of the 'Ohana polyfamily but he is their neighbor.
“A Father's Love”
It began on the worst day of George's life.
The day started out okay but ended in slick ice
and the shriek of metal on metal.
He came out of the accident
a widower with a litany of broken bones
and worried that his newborn child
was going to be joining his wife.
She didn't.
Jaime was premature
but she hung in there.
George held his baby girl and
thanked whoever was listening
that he hadn't lost both of them.
His parents came up to help him.
He was grateful for their support.
George was sure he wouldn't have made it otherwise.
Everything reminded him of Winona
and it was hard to believe that she was really gone.
Part of him kept hoping he'd wake up
and it would all be a bad dream.
The funeral was a nightmare.
Her parents didn't blame him or anything
but Winona was their only kid.
They were in as many little pieces
as he was.
The only bright spot was Jaime.
She could get him to smile.
To laugh.
To keep getting up every morning.
Because Jaime needed him.
She had already lost her mommy.
George was determined that
she wasn't going to lose her daddy too.
They say that time heals all wounds or
that eventually grief hurts less.
They were wrong.
It always hurt.
You would always have a hole in your heart
where that person was supposed to be
and that hole burned.
It hurt and all time did
was dull its edge.
Outside of those first few terrifying days,
Jaime was a healthy, happy baby.
She grew up to be a
healthy, happy little girl.
George learned a lot in those years
about being a father and about little girls.
He supposed he was going to keep learning
as his little girl keep right on growing.
They talked about Mommy.
Sometimes on his own and
sometimes because Jaime asked.
Jaime had her own pictures.
He and her parents shared stories.
So that while Jaime couldn't remember Winona,
she'd at least have something.
He found it helped ease his own pain
to talk about Winona.
To remember her and all of the good times.
Kids are full of surprises.
Some of the most surprising
were the unintentional little gifts.
And the love.
Jaime told him she loved him everyday.
Most of the parents of older kids
swore that one day, she'll stop doing that
and he needs to enjoy it while it lasts.
He hopes that Jaime will be
the exception that proves the rule.
Either way and just in case,
he tells her that he loves her everyday too.