Author's note: <br />.....At my mother's bedside...just before her death...February 2001...South Bend, IN. <br />* <br />* <br />When raging fever wracked my body <br />Who caressed my aching head <br />Before I learned to feed myself <br />Who saw to it that I was fed <br /> <br />Though she needs my help this morning <br />...There is nothing I can do... <br />To ease such dreadful suffering <br />...You've seen fit...to put her through <br /> <br />May I remind You...of my childhood <br />....Oh...It seems...just yesterday <br />Family gatherings....around Your altar <br />...It was she....who led the way <br /> <br />Now..in her name...I beg forgiveness <br />...Deemed transgressions...whatever sin <br />This...the child....of all those Sundays <br />...Thank You Lord...Dear God...Amen <br /> <br /> <br />“The suspense: the fearful, acute suspense: of standing idly by while the life of one we dearly love, is trembling in the balance; the racking thoughts that crowd upon the mind, and make the heart beat violently, and the breath come thick, by the force of the images they conjure up before it; the desperate anxiety to be doing something to relieve the pain, or lessen the danger, which we have no power to alleviate; the sinking of soul and spirit, which the sad remembrance of our helplessness produces; what tortures can equal these; what reflections of endeavours can, in the full tide and fever of the time, allay them! ” <br />? Charles Dickens<br /><br />James B. Earley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/oh-it-seems-just-yesterday/
