(for my Dad)

Sweetheart you must go,
It’s the hardest thing in the world,
But you must do it,
You must.

My Dads funeral was so hard,
The second hardest day of my life,
I remember a packed out church,
People I have never met.

I wondered who they all were.
Then I realized,
That in his own way,
My Dad has touched all their lives.

So you may ask me then,
What was the worst day of your life?
Well that was in the morgue,
As I said my first goodbyes and cried.

Then at the graveside,
I looked at my Mum, my Sister and Brother,
My Aunts and Uncles,
And realized he was also a husband.

A Dad to my siblings,
And a Brother,
The youngest Brother,
To his own siblings.

All week people looked at me,
And cried,
People I have never met,
They just cried as I look like my Dad.

At the end of the burial,
As I watched my Mum look into a plot,
Where she herself would rest,
A bird flew over his grave.

And my Mum smiled,
It was a cold January morning, frosty,
But my Dad loved birds, and animals,
Just as I do in his place.

And I spent days, and hours,
Getting my sister,
At the wake, (an Irish tradition of death)
To say goodbye.

But she did eventually,
She was the apple of his eye,
It made me realize too,
How hard it was on every single soul.

How we all thought differently,
But yet we were united in our sadness,
And so I tell you this,
Have the courage, I know is within you.

And have the strength,
To face it,
And say goodbye,
And those who love you,

Will support you.

14/10/09