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.”
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