Encouragement Poem by Bill Galvin

Two weeks ago tonight you left…
You chose your time to leave,
And allowed me to be part of your journey home.
We were Traveling Companions to the very end.
As a new Child of the Universe
You now have insight we here can only aspire to.

As I walk our empty rooms
I wonder if we talked enough before you lost speech.
Did I recall enough loving remembrances?
Did I express too much regret?
Was I too apologetic for my shortfalls?
Did I allow you enough response?
Of course, it’s partly my poor memory
And the intensity of this past year
Contributing to today’s questions and doubts.
So, at around 10 pm… the time you passed over…
I look on a shelf and find a little-used journal.
Curious, I open it to inspire myself to use it.
(Thank you, Babe… you guided me there.)
In it I find this conversation of ours
From a couple months before you lost total speech:

...Monday 5-26-2014 11pm
D – “My love for you was gushing over when we first met. Everything we did: going to outdoor equipment stores,
Camping, hiking… I loved it all, and you, truly.”
B – “I’m sorry I spoiled that for you for a while.”
D – “Don’t be sorry. You gave it all back to me.
You made it up to me… really, don’t think that way.”
B – “Thank you so much for that.”
D – “I’d like to be able to run my fingers
Through your hair again.”

I write a footnote:
“Hearing all this, my heart breaks more and more;
But I have to be strong for my Deborah.”

B – “You’re my Special Angel.
You’ve made me the man that I am…
Brought out the best in me.
But you don’t even think that way,
Because you’re too humble…
But that’s the way it has to be.
We do good without thinking about it,
And that’s what makes us good.”

So, I have flickers of doubt today…
And you guide me to those words…
Your very own words… of encouragement.

And if I think that I may have left anything
Unsaid, unexplained, untold, unexpressed…
Well, then, once again, you’re a Child of the Universe,
Which means you can see it all so clearly now.
There are no secrets between heaven and earth.
You have the keys; you can see behind our walls.

I know that you know.

I weep tears of gladness for us both.

2-25-2015