Written for the funeral service of my darling mother Elaine in 2023.

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A Reflection 

 

An elegant woman of simple dreams

To be loving wife and mother of four

Her heart at risk of tearing at the seams

From all the love she carried in her core

 

Her four boys lived a charmed and easy youth

We knew we were the blessed boys of mum

We floated happily in her sweet truth

That we indeed were brighter than the sun

 

As reality slowly came to bear

Revealing all our frailties and scars

Mum’s unwavering conviction stood clear

We always would remain her brightest stars

 

For Mum, life’s pressures pressed too hard upon

She struggled to fulfil this lonely role

Floundering in helpless desperation

As life extracted a life-changing toll

 

Yet through it all our gentle champion emerged

Bloodied and bruised, yet still so full of love

She harnessed her great passionate reserves

And with a fresh resolve, she rose above

 

So here we stand, in wonderment today

That this good kindly font of motherhood

Survived and thrived in unambitious ways

And taught us how the worst can be withstood

 

This lesson bests what formal teaching might

And Mum was not an educated soul

Yet she taught us that love could win the fight

And thus she played the perfect mother’s role.

 

Michael Reid

May 2023

 

©️ Michael Reid 2023, all rights reserved