TOMORROW IN FITZROY 23.4.17
CHRIS WILSON IN FITZROY... and U2, Rich Mullins and MARTYN JOSEPH

YOU TOUCHED YOUR CHEEK (for Lindsay Emerson)

Lindsay and Alain

Friends have been remembering this weekend the passing of Lindsay Emerson, ten years ago today at the age of just 23.

My last visit I had with her was about a week before she left us. She was very ill, lying very still in her bed. My dear friend Alain, her husband, was loving her in the tenderest and most incredible of ways and he chatted to her. Even as a pastor I am at a loss in such situations and stammered a few words.

I went to leave and as I looked down to say goodbye Lindsay touched her cheek, her eyes lighting as bright as they could. It was a second and I continued to leave. As I got into my car I thought back and realised that Lindsay was speaking to me in that motion. I am convinced she was asking for a kiss. How I regret that I missed her last goodbye.

I wrote this soon after she passed away.

 

You touched your cheek

Being you, so understated

Like so much we came to realise

And me, I hesitated

You touched your cheek

So quickly the moment went

It made my sadness tender

When I untangled what you meant.

 

And now, you’re bathed in forgiveness

You are submerged in no regret

Laughing in your wisdom

At all we still can’t get

And now we’re hung down in memories

All that we failed to recognise

Missing all the life that radiated

In the light of your dimming eyes.

 

You touched your cheek

And moved your neck

I smile, and then I left you

And I never went back

Oh to go there now

To catch what then I missed

Whisper how we love you

And give you that one last kiss.

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