The Day You Left ... 

by Lisa Sculley
mother of Joey 7/16/92 to 10/7/92
Billy 10/14/87
Michael 7/7/89

Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998

The Day You Left ...

The day you left was just a typical, ordinary day. The sun was out that day, which is typical for an October day. The leaves had not yet turned, but there was a hint of the coolness of fall in the air. The smell of summer had passed from the breeze, and something softer replaced it. It was one of those days you didn't want to work, the kind that invites picnics and amusement parks. The very first of Autumn touched the air.

The day you left had no whisper of the events that were to take place. We didn't know that a day so beautiful would be the ugliest of days by its winding down. We didn't know that the warm hugs and kisses, and the stolen glances on a baby so sweet, just wakening from sleep, would be gone by the evening. We didn't know that our lives would be torn asunder and thrown into a cruel, cold, merciless winter, without softening Autumn breezes to prepare us for desolation. We didn't know.

We didn't know that you were spending your last hours... without us there. We didn't know that the last time we would hear your cry was already past. How could we? On a day such as that, it is just not possible that something so tragic, so final, could happen. Could it?

The day you left us is etched in my brain. A beautiful day, etched with the ending of summer, and of something else. An ending of the beauty you brought us, while you were here. You are missed.

Lisa Sculley
September 29, 1998
In memory of Joey
7/16/92 to 10/7/92

The Day You Left

Autumn turning to winter
Bright sun, cloudless day
No sign of Rain
No sign of Pain
An ordinary day

A wakening child, content to lie sleepily in expectation.
A feeling of "rightness"

A completed family
Unaware of the ending of things,
Torn asunder by sudden circumstance
And your senseless loss.

The day you left,
Tore us apart,
Leaving behind pain and sorrow,
Loneliness & guilt,
confusion and emptiness.
How Unfair!
That you leave so soon,
Taking with you the beauty of your life.

And yet ...
Something still remains.
Could it be, that the beauty
Of a life remembered,
Of a life full of love
Bears the gift of love
Even within our loss?

And so,
Heart surrendered
I will forever remember
Not just the day you left,
But the day you came.