That Very Brave Old Dear Poem by Francis Duggan

Scarce a day goes by that some character I do not meet
Like the toothless old dear who lives on Park Street
With shoulder length gray hair free of conceit and guile
She always does greet me with a broad gummy smile
Her husband he passed on a few years ago
Of terminal cancer his end painful and slow
Fifty years ago their only child a teenager swimming in the sea died
Her body discovered on a beach washed in by the tide
Life burdens some people with a heavy cross
And for herself and her husband a heartbreaking loss
Their beautiful daughter from them forever gone
But through heartbreak and sorrow they somehow lived on
And I meet her quite often though not every day
That very brave old dear the years have left gray.