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The Garden of your Memory

A year since you’ve crossed

A year since you’re gone

And yet you’re alive

And yet you live on

 

I feel you in my body

In the stories that we tell

In the chairs without they’re seats

In the house I know so well

 

I see you all around me

I breathe you in each night

As I say my evening prayers

For everything to turn out alright

 

I miss you all the time

I think it’s plain to see

But we hear about you often

From strangers in the street.

 

They speak of you so fondly

You touched they’re lives so deep

I hope it comforts my grandmother

(as she cries herself to sleep)

 

I don’t know it for certain

But I feel it in my heart

She misses you so much

She hates you’re far apart

But she’s busier than ever

And she’s made some new friends too

Her life has come full circle

We’re watching over her for you

So you don’t have to worry

But I know you probably will

 

We tend your garden often

We water it each day

The flowers there are thriving

Even though you’re far away

Strangers come by often

They tend the garden too

To preserve the man you were

The man we love and knew

 

I hope you know your kindness has touched so many lives,

I hope you can rest easy

knowing that your memory lives on,

And I hope you know you’re loved and missed

Despite the fact you’re gone.

                                   -Kathryn Gailey

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