Twelve Months Ago Poem by Bill Galvin

Twelve months ago she began her courageous, singular, and lonely, journey.
Doctors advised that the ALS would be her eventual demise; and soon.
She numbly recalled the many battles she had won from within the clutches of Lupus over her last 35 years.
And how her whole adult life was mottled by crisis and trial as she fought damned Lupus and its many complications to a draw.
Now short of 64 years, she remarks how ironic it is that a virtual freight train will derail her hopes after so much striving toward clean living, toward doing the right thing.
So many sacrifices, so much optimism, so many medicines, so many surgeries; and now, so little reward.
Is it no wonder she has lost her humor, her hope, and has felt abandoned?
We try to comfort, to assist; but her increasing disability draws her further away from us.
She can no longer speak, and is feeling isolated from the world she once reveled in; a world she brightened with a captivating smile and personality.
Her earthly needs can no longer be fulfilled by earthly elements.
She fights on in her last battle; to her last dying breath.
We shall miss her deeply, and the world will be diminished by her passing.

1-25-2015