A Mother's Farewell
My journey seemed to have just begun. I had not traveled that far down the road,
When before me an Angel appeared, saying, “It is time.”
“How can that be?" I asked. "It was just yesterday that she held me in her arms.”
“And rocked me to comfort me to sleep.”
“It was just yesterday that she watched me leave home as I walked to my first school.”
“It was yesterday she waited patiently for me to finish my first ball game to take me back home. She did that quite often, you know.”
The Angel repeated, "It is time."
"No." I stuttered through teary eyes. “It was just yesterday that she sat nervously beside me as I drove her around the block.” I think she feared more my freedom than the dent on the car door.
“It was just yesterday she took my hands, asking, 'Are you ready for this?' Then she hugged me, whispering that she loved me as I left home to start my life as a new husband."
“It was yesterday she had the biggest smile I'd ever seen on her as she held her first grandchild.”
“It was just yesterday that she gathered the family together to lay rest the man she spent her life with, the man she raised her family with.”
“And it was just yesterday she laughed and shared one more birthday, threatening to leave if we got the wait staff to sing her ‘Happy Birthday’.”
“Surely you must have made a mistake; it can’t be her time. It seems like just yesterday we just started.”
The Angel smiled and stretched forth her arm to rest upon my head as I dropped slowly to my knees; behind the tears saying, “I pray it is not her time.”
“It is her time,” said the Angel, "We must go."
As she turned to leave, she looked back and said, “You are correct that it was just yesterday she held you, watched you grow, shared with you all the moments you gave her; always wanting to share more. It was yesterday that she lived everyday to be there for you; there have been many yesterdays, and she has lived fully each and every one. But today is her time. She has been so much to so many in all those yesterdays – daughter, sister, aunt, wife, mother, friend, companion -- but today is her time to begin her new journey, waiting anxiously to reunite with family and friends. Today is her day -- today she stops to rest and wait; watching over you, waiting to reach out her arms to hold you again.”
I stood, tears on my cheeks, and I knew. My yesterdays were filled with her unwavering love; my today filled with sadness from her last breath; but, my tomorrow will be filled with the memories that we built yesterday.
