Age Nine

The date was ‘99

The weather was fine

And I felt happy as a dancer

Then out came my dad

He looked so sad

And he said, “Syd, its cancer”



I jumped with a start

Those words stopped my heart

And then my mom came outside

She looked quite healthy

But that tumor was stealthy

It sucked out all her pride



She went to the doctor

But came back with a shocker

All of her hair was gone

Had the chemo worked?

Then my heart jerked

Her happy smile was withdrawn



We went on home

And Dad picked up the phone

His face was as sad as could be

He looked in dismay

As he said “Yes” and “Okay.”

He hung up and turned to me



“What’s wrong?” I said

As he turned his head

“Your aunt passed away”

Those 4 little words

Made themselves heard

There was nothing that I could say



A personal note by the Author:

This note was written on 11/25/08 or so.
When I was nine years old, I suffered a great loss. The first death in my family that I was old enough to understand was the death of my great-aunt. She was like a second mother to me, and when always was smiling. The last time I saw her was a few hours before she died, and somehow I knew that the next time I saw her she would be in a coffin.
About two and a half weeks ago, my great-uncle, my aunt’s husband, died. He simply stopped breathing. The tears that hadn’t come when my aunt died now flowed down my cheeks, letting out years of pain.
The occurrences in these verses didn’t all happen right after each other. There are weeks and even months between these verses. These events were spaced out over the course of one year.