The telephone gives us a fright
The nursing home where dear Dad lay
So peacefully when we went today
Has one last duty to perform
Harbinger of a sadder dawn.
Dad’s hold on life has ebbed away
His soul has taken flight today.
Safe and at peace; and we who mourn
Bless the star when he was born
Older by two months than Mandela
Like him, a caring thoughtful fellow.
A navigator in World War II
Mum fell for this young man in blue
Because right from the very start
Tom wrote poems from the heart.
The war was ending, they were wed
So fast have sixty-eight years sped
Fully employed and never ill
Active in retirement still:
A sportsman on the tennis court
Lover of English which he taught
Helping the young to get ahead
Education stands them in good stead.
Her life bound up in Dad’s embrace
Mum’s now alone and has to face
The future – an uncharted map
Where we, her children, fill the gap.
We’re a loving family, very small
On whom she knows that she can call
As well as all her friends who care
As she enters bravely this new sphere.
(c) Poet in the woods 2013
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