I wrote this poem for my dad…the night before his funeral.

The following is a partial excerpt from my speech at the funeral luncheon.

“Anyone who knows my dad and I, can attest to the fact that my dad had always meant the world to me and me to him.

He has been my mentor, protector, teacher and best friend.

I will always be grateful that my son, Noah, and I, were able to move back to my hometown and be closer to my father.

When this day ultimately arrived, I always knew that I would need and want, to express my love for my dad.

Struggling to put a jumble of memories, thoughts and emotions down on paper, a friend of my dad’s came to the rescue. He pulled a rumpled piece of paper out of his pant’s pocket that had written on it a heartfelt poem. This will do, I thought!

But then I awoke in the wee hours of the morning with a poem for my dad in my head. I dragged myself from my warm bed, wrapped my dad’s fluffy, tattered, terrycloth robe around me and sat in my hubby’s hulking brown and yellow chair with bear heads adorning the end of the wooden arms…I sat and just wrote…

The following poem is what resulted.”

Sometimes Sweet, Sometimes Stubborn

I don’t know if I will ever get over what more I could have done, this powerful bond of love just can’t be undone.

The pain and heartache seem to grow with each and every rising sun, for there were still so many years of loving and nurturing yet to come.

And so, I look to my family, my husband and especially my son, for the comfort and support that a happy life is yet to be spun.

I love you dad more than my words or actions could ever have shown, and I hope that my love was always something you had known.

Sometimes sweet, sometimes stubborn, but my heart was always yours to govern.

Please watch over me, and fill my heart with peace, until again one day, when we will meet.