Mnd: The Killer With No Heart Poem by Sheena Blackhall

It started with a tremor in one hand
Slighter than a leaf -tug in Autumn
Lyme's disease? Perhaps. Nothing confirmed
Slow and steady like a tarn silting up
Other signs and symptoms manifested
The Stephen Hawking malady
He'd fumble with the buckle of his belt
A cruel, creeping incapacity

And he, a partner, father, friend and son
Succumbed, little by little, to infirmity
His brave blue eyes shone brightly as before
A handsome, honest, lovely family man
Driven into a wheelchair's vulnerability

Now he was a jigsaw coming adrift
Reliant on others, who fought hard to keep him
MND could not diminish his charm, nor his humanity
His epitaph should surely be
Here was a man who loved, was loved by all
Stepped from his suffering into our memory