TONIGHT I WRITE OF DEATH

Tonight I write of death.
I sit alone remembering how
My family died, I grieve
For those not with me now.

I see each face and hear each voice;
The memories make my heart rejoice.
Then the grief sets in
And the tears start to fall again.
The first to go was a brother
A brain tumor, he could not recover.
Then my father, stricken with cancer -
I asked why but got no answer.
My little brother killed on a quarry
No one to blame, all were so sorry.
My sister took her own life
Couldn't bear to endure the strife.
My mother would have been eighty-one
When she realized her work was done.
My nephew and my brother-in-law
Cancer again - the final straw!
Yet there was still more to come,
Cancer took the life of the oldest one.
My husband died that same year -
Death was drawing ever near,
Another sister, this one a nurse
Developed cancer's unGodly curse.
And just this year, another lost.
Again to cancer; what a cost.
The reason I am telling you
Although you may see nothing new,
Is that while your family is all right
Be sure you hold them - extra tight!