Submitted by: Joanne Linn
Born: 1987
Died: 2016
My Tribute: For Ben

The yellow-gold of the forsythia blossoms
herald the newness of this, our first spring without you.
My tears, the sadness in your father’s eyes,
cannot do justice to the loss of you.
How to go on,
knowing that you would want us to thrive and flourish –
live lives as lush and full as the lavender blossoms
of the hydrangea that was given to us after creating
the white and purple quilt square that bears your name.
How to go on, we ask,
when the daffodils and tulips beckon of early spring.
They call to us and remind us
of the all too short season of your blooming.
How to go on,
living in this coffin of loss?
I long to embrace you and instead
can only fold lonely arms around the burnished urn
that holds the remains of your dear body.
“I am not here,” I hear you calling.
Not there, yet you turn in memory to face me,
smiling, with newly shorn hair.

Ben – we will love, cherish and miss you forever. Mom.