This is a poem written by my great-grandfather mourning the loss of his wife, my great grandmother. I wish I had listened more to the stories Grandma told me about her parents.

Lamentation for My Dear Wife who Died September 29, 1935

The summer sun will shine again

As brightly as of yore

The west wind blow a soft refrain

The waves caress the shore

The featured choir will trill sweet song

Bright flowers will greet the sight

The moon will rise mid starry throng

To mount the throne of night

But Not for me will nature smile

Nor birds their carols raise

No more can summer skies beguile

Nor flowers enchant my gaze

The moon may still her radiance shed

Just as on nights of yore

But what wails when hope is dead

And my Dear wife I’ll see no more.

Though quenchless fires will inward burn

To a high degree I know

Yea though I see all life’s glory turn

To dust and ashes now

But I’ll strive to pay this utmost price

Though bankrupt is my soul

And climb Cochrane Hill of sacrifice

Where duty points the goal…

Fond are the ties that are broken

And the rose that is faded and gone

But in silence this Dear rose is budding

And will bloom forth in heaven again

So shall it ever be in the bright morning

When hearts awakening see the shadows flee

Oh in that hour and fairer than dawning

My glorious thought – she is with thee.