In His Memory

Today, I paused in honor of my brother killed several years ago. If he had lived, we would be celebrating his Birthday today.

I lost a man I loved and admired almost thirty years ago, my brother Anthony. Today would have been his Birthday, and as I light a candle in memory of him, I found solace knowing he left a legacy in those that he loves—a gift that cannot be stolen or rotted, which is love.  My brother didn’t just love; he was the embodiment of love. Unfortunately, they took him from us violently early in life. He is and will always be because of those like me. Your father may be physically absent, but spiritually my nieces and nephews and my siblings, he is with us with every step we take, and with every breath, we are all a part of him. So let’s celebrate him today.  Happy Birthday, my forever love, my brother, Anthony!!

I must use this time to acknowledge those who are in this same frame of mind as I am today, in mourning or celebrating a loved one that has left too soon. May you find solace in the memory of the loss of your loved ones and become their arm of reaching out in a season of hope, becoming the difference they could have been.

In the circle of life springs anew life-source

Where renewal and strength breathe acceptance,

Where we become the difference for which we hope

And it’s at this juncture resolve is realized,

Helping us to see the beauty life offers amid our pain

Where in the vestiges of our yesterdays…memories provide a path

Where we weaved those shattered fragments of our past

To become capable of creating a whole in the fracture of love lost,

By putting back those pieces together that today adds to our heightened

purpose.

Marjorie Delores

Thank you for indulging me in thinking out aloud. I just wrote this poem, and it flows from a place of peace with the promise that a better day will come for us.