Grief should be a story well told..
we should be able to say,
“Ah well, it was a life well lived
and sad that it ended..
But here is the thing…
nothing was left undone,
unsaid,
unexplained,
hands were held,
love shared,
pain halved..
peace embraced,
sure, it ended too soon..
the full stop came when life was at its fullest..
we will remember however..not the pain
but the joy given and taken.
It was a life well lived.”
But how can one deal with a ‘What if?’
What if, I had done something?
Said something?
Listened?
What if during that last phone call
a few months back, I had said
“I am here. For you and yours?”
How can one understand or forgive the truth
that even families know nothing about being a family?
About throwing life jackets and sunshine armours
to sons, daughters, nieces, uncles and those who need them the most?
What if this grief never has a closure?
What if, it is always heavy and leaden with the unspent pain of what could have been?
If only we had been there..
this end..would never have been.