My heart squeezed tight when I got the call
I'd not prepared myself at all
The journey seemed so painfully slow
Allowing fear to gradually grow
Greeted by that clinic smell
A silent bell began to knell
My shock I could not keep inside
At how you'd changed, oh how I cried
You looked so gaunt, so pale, so thin
It angered me that it should win
The cancer that you'd fought so hard
About to have the final word
Yet still you smiled, your eyes awake
The sparkle that it could not take
You held my hand and in my ear
A whisper, glad that I was here
Never will I forget your face
Changed, another in your place
Never can I forget that day
Your face so drawn, your skin so grey
I hope, I yearn, I wish, I pray
The memory will fade away
And every time I think of you
The happier times come breaking through

Taken from the book Breakfast Bites, and published in the Anthology "A Day in Time"