Dew Drop In April 2024.2025 Poems

Day 25 Care Giving

April 25—Care giving

Sam’s mother
Died of Alzheimer's
In 2007.

She spent
the last three years
Of her life,

In a nursing home
In Napa City.

About a hundred miles
From her home
In Berkeley.

Her adult children
had to move her
When it became obvious

She could no longer
Manage things
on her own

The saddest thing of all
Was that
she lost the ability
to read.

She had always been a huge reader
And loved discussing
what she was reading
With Sam, her favorite son.

And he loved talking to her
About what he was reading
As well.

He last saw her
When she was
some what lucid
In 2002.

When he joined his brothers
And sister
In helping her move
To the nursing home.

It was one of
the saddest days
Of her life
And of Sam’s

But it had to be done
None of them could
take care of her.

as she needed
full time care
and none of them
wanted to do so

because their mother
was a difficult person
with a prickly personality.

So they shipped her off
To the nursing home.

The day she died
Sam was on his way
To the nursing home/

Had to beg the management
To delay shipping her remains
Until they could get there.

They reluctantly allowed them
The time to get there
And see her.

Sam went in
and talked with her

Sam sensed
her spirit all around me
And I knew that she had held on
To life.

Until she could see
Her favorite son.

They buried her
in El Cerrito
on a hilltop cemetery,

with a killer view
of the Golden Gate
across the bay.


Down the street
From her home.

And every few years
Sam went to her grave
And communed
with her spirit.

sensing
that her ghost
is near by
listening to him.