This is in response to a comment I received from Faraz Ajmal,
Thank you for your kind feedback of my first poem on Poetry Soup and entered in to the "Topic of Cancer" contest. You puff me up. No I do not have cancer. This was written when I was caring for my mum who had breast cancer and died on the 04/12/2018. She liked the title of the poem which is based on a comment she made one day. She thought I was too flowery when writing poetry, "keep it plain....why an Indigo Sky!". I love Indigo skies. Some background: when mum was 17yo she would sneak out of Nurses quarters with her mate and go to Tamatekapua Marae (Maori meeting house) where they held dances. That is where she met my father. They loved the song, "Georgia on my Mind" version by Ray Charles which I am named after. Rose and Bella are her sisters who passed, Rose in October 2018, 3 days after we arrived in New Zealand to visit her. Goldie was mums first dog (she had many over the years and liked them more than humans) and whenever one of her dogs died, Goldie would appear, we think to guide them home. My mum was 78yo and strong minded, she opted not to have chemo or radiation viewing it as putting poison in her body and went on a special diet - no sugar, no preservatives, no dairy etc but sparingly took morphine in her final weeks. Overall, in the two years from her diagnosis we cruised to Papua New Guinea - the picture of the tree attached to the poem. We went to NZ and saw family, my two siblings. I am glad she died before my younger sister who died 3 weeks after mum. She died on her feet, at home, where she wanted to be. I hope her strength and vulnerability are projected in the poem. She was an inspiration to many.