A Year ago today...

A year ago, my world changed forever. Losing my mother has left a space nothing can fill. I wrote this poem not for answers, but to release the weight of everything I’ve carried this past year; the sorrow, the memories, and the hope that still tries to shine through.

On an unsuspecting world once golden with light,
A shadow crept in, quiet, out of sight.
It waited in silence, patient and near—
A storm on the edge, a whisper of fear.

Then came the tear, the unmaking of day,
As sorrow descended and stole you away.
The world I had known, so warm and so wide,
Collapsed to a whisper the moment you died.

Tears fell like rain, unbidden, unfree,
A flood of the love you had given to me.
It felt as though joy had been buried and gone,
That daylight itself could not carry on.

But still, the sun rose—though quieter, strained,
Its brilliance dulled, its warmth refrained.
Each morning we wake to a silence anew,
Still tracing the echo, the shape of you.

We meander through life, this hollowed-out place,
With shadows behind us and tears on our face.
But we carry your laughter, your courage, your name,
And light the dark path with love's gentle flame.

Though the light that we chase feels just out of reach,
You left us a truth only love could teach:
That even in grief, we are never alone,
For your heart still beats softly inside our own.

I miss you, Mom.