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Monday, June 20, 2022

June Dew

In 2009, I watched my husband bury his father;

his strong, active body had been

no match 

against the burst blood vessel in his brain.

A year and a half later, on Father's Day,

I paged through a hymnal

with Ed's neice and nephew

choosing songs for their daddy's funeral.

Three years ago,

my three-year-old stood on tiptoe

to see into her daddy's casket,

a body consumed

by a monster in his brain.

Three months later,

a dad shoveled dirt onto the grave

of his eighteen-year-old daughter, Ed's niece.

Last week that same dad

buried another daughter,

while her three-year-old daughter watched.

Ed's family has faced too much loss.

Small children will never know

their daddy, their mother, their grandpa, their aunt.

Young lives

vanished

before the day was half spent.

We've needed Ed's dad.

He would have been our anchor, 

yet his huge soft heart would have volunteered

to go first.

I can't comprehend heaven. 

Does Dad knows that one by one

his family is joining him 

too early, too abrupt, too premature?

But maybe, 

from his height

above the mist and mountain craigs,

the view looks different.


 "We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work Thou didst in their days, in the times of old." Psalms 44:1

Photos thanks to the photographers who share their work at pixaby.com.

12 comments:

  1. This post brings lots of emotion. It is a blessing to see God's faithfulness in the times of sorrow.

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  2. What sadness! What loss! Truly the view is different on this side. We like for life to make sense…but yet we cling to the Creator of life (and Conquerer of death) for where else could we go?

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  3. I am so sorry to hear of all your family's loses. You have my deepest sympathy 🙏

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  4. That is more than any family should have to endure. I'm sorry for your family's loss.

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  5. I can almost not fathom such loss in one family. Isn't it a wonder that the same God who "wounds" is the same God we turn to for healing?!

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  6. So very sorry for your continued loss. Their beautiful association here is continuing there, made perfect through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

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  7. I am so sorry.
    Not now, but in the coming years,
    It may be in the better land,
    We’ll read the meaning of our tears,
    And there, some time, we’ll understand.

    Then trust in God through all the days;
    Fear not, for He doth hold thy hand;
    Though dark thy way, still sing and praise,
    Some time, some time we’ll understand.

    God knows the way, He holds the key,
    He guides us with unerring hand;
    Some time with tearless eyes we’ll see;
    Yes, there, up there, we’ll understand.

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  8. Oh Gina. The pain is heartbreaking, but you and your poem are beautiful. And there will come a Day...
    "Leave it all in the hands that were wounded for you." EE

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  9. I wept as I read this piece, the overwhelming loss, the pain, the grief to so many young adults and children. but the last four lines.... the view from heaven vs earth. Praying for your family.

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  10. Oh, I am sorry! Many prayers...

    I'm sure it is right that the view looks completely different from the other side.

    "[Not one sparrow] shall fall on the ground without your father..."

    "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

    "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."

    "And God shall wipe away all the tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away."

    May the Lord who wept with the sisters of His friend Lazarus, be with you all.

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  11. So sorry for another loss! The Lord has made and the Lord will bear…

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  12. Dear Gina, so much loss… no family should have to bear it. Particularly when those we lose are still such young people in the prime of their lives. Your piece was beautifully written, with such sadness and love. Wishing you and yours strength and comfort ❤️

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