Happy Birthday, Mom. . . "Lasting Inscription" in Entries of Great Significance

Happy Birthday, mom. Today you would have been 71. I am beyond words blessed to have another angel smiling down upon me. Lord knows I could use another! In your honor, I’ve struggled to find the words to express to myself let alone anyone else what you meant. I realized, of all the writing in my life I have done I never wrote you a poem I would want you to read. So this is the result of the endeavor to remedy that.

And sometimes the inspiration comes from falling apart for all the right reasons..

“Lasting Inscription”

Quiet nights
Were never our companion.
All alone, you held my future
In your weathered hands.
And you raised a small, fatherless boy
On his journey of becoming a man.

The streetcars rolled,
Just outside your window.
The mighty Mississippi coursed,
Just beyond the levee.
There was ivy hanging,
Low on Oak and Willow trees.
From St. Charles Avenue
All the way to Pirate’s Alley.

Pretty words were never yours,
Dreams and drawing instead,
Your constant companions.
Your skill and trade –
Was working fabric into fashion.
From wedding dresses,
Carnival Ball gowns,
To costumes and crafts,
So many fairy tales created
By your creativity, your passion.

Whenever life offered up,
A chance through circumstance,
That any soul you encountered
Needed affection, love, or
Just simple, true kindness,
You felt it on your shoulders,
To offer the lost what they lacked,
You gave them all that others,
Never expressed.
Their eye turned in blindness.

There were cracks, fissures
Within your sturdy foundation.
Yet I learned so much from
Perfection is family,
Family is perfection.
Truly, your heart’s inscription

There were such great moments,
Plentiful trying times,
And significant ugly ones,
No question.
And yet here stand proud,
Your three boys,
Heads bowed,
Raised into manhood,
By your determination.
Your strength of will.
Your loving direction.

We are your legacy,
Your lasting decision.
A testament to the woman,
And the mother, and the teacher,
A testament to everything you are.
All you were.
And still are –
All the good in me and in we.
You are our Guardian Angel.
No longer with us here.
Instead in Heaven.

Yet I am most proud.
And I am most grateful,
That you were my Guardian Angel,
In my life when I was a child,
Needing so much direction.
So lost, but with so much affection.

Always loving.
Always hoping.
Always fighting.
Always teaching.

Family is perfection
We are that,
Your lasting inscription.

Brian Milici
July 16, 2015

Love you, mom! Happy Birthday, and we are going to celebrate you. Somehow, you brought your three boys back together.

I always knew you would.

Somehow.

You wily devil of an angel. :)

(I endeavor to catch up on all of you and your lives soon. Thank you all for being so understanding. How are you?!)

May you always find your smile.