She’s the one we could rely on
when things were sorely scarce,
to always find a way to get by
when it went from bad to worse.

She’s the one true matriarch,
the gel at the center of all,
never too far away from us;
never more than a call.

Sacrificing all she had,
for us, her flesh and blood,
always standing second place
to the family’s common good.

She’s the one who bore the pain
and then kept us safe and warm,
to make it through the cold and rain,
protecting us from harm.

She held our hands so tightly
through all the scary times;
our first days at nursery school,
stood in terrified lines.

And at the end of every day
when we'd really had enough,
she'd be stood at the door waiting
with a heart so full of love.

...

When illness struck
me down so hard;
laid up and oh, so low,

I had the comfort
of knowing she
would never let me go.

Yet on that long
and lonely night
so many years ago,

when deaths dark door
stood slightly ajar,
beckoning me to go,

my overriding memory;
much more than
my own fears,

was the lost and mournful sound
of her beseeching,
terrified tears.

...

As we go about our daily lives,
through times so thick and thin,
through pure and innocent laughter
and such pain from deep within.

From days of sunshine and flowers,
to wind and driving snow,
there is one thing sure and for certain;
one thing that we always know.

She is the bedrock of our lives
and the one above all others,
the one we can always turn to;
she’s our sweet and loving Mother.



Written by Darren Scanlon, May 2013.
Revised 4th August 2015.
©2015 Darren Scanlon. All rights reserved.