YOU TOUCHED YOUR CHEEK (for Lindsay Emerson)
23/04/2017
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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