All Our Yesterdays

All Our Yesterdays By Elton Camp What she once was, Mae recalls Strong, competent and comforting A loving wife and then a mother Her nursing degree so hard-won She was quite a beauty back then Old and gray infinitely far away The children moved to married life Too soon, her husband was gone Valiantly, she continued forward, Grateful for the happiness she had Time inexorably came to have its way Not suddenly but in tiny baby steps “Mrs. Mae, can I help you to bed? We don’t want to fall now, do we? Your son called to say he’d visit soon. During the holidays he has time off.” "He’ll take you by your house a while. You’ll like how the renters keep it. Then drive out to Woodlawn Hill To make sure the plot is still clean.” Too many yesterdays Mae has seen But a gracious woman is still inside “Thank you, dear, that’d be nice. I am tired and need to lie down now.”