Mother Death Poem

Losing Mother During Lockdown

Mum went into a Nursing Home in September last year. She had lived in the family home for six years after my father passed away. For two years we had caregivers assisting mum, eventually needing live in caregivers, then sadly we had to move mum to a nursing home. For six months everything was okay. We visited regularly, conscious our visits were very important to her well-being. Then the home went into lockdown. Her sight and hearing incredibly poor, our only forms of contact were FaceTime and the phone, and it wasn't enough.

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A Sad Goodbye

Published by Family Friend Poems October 2020 with permission of the Author.

What end to life is this?
Five months without physical contact, without a kiss.
So many promises unable to fulfil,
Summer walks in the garden, a Mother's Day meal.
Promising with every call,
Things would improve, we'd still do them all.
There will be a time when we could take her out,
Half believing, half shadows of doubt.
The decline was unmistakable,
Like watching in slow motion someone fall.
Her withdrawal was evident to see,
Frustrated by her growing dependency.
She tried so hard to hold together,
But this storm intolerable to weather.
"We're all in the same boat,"
One of Mum's favourite quotes.
Yet her boat was sinking fast,
Fear, unsustainable, a knowledge this couldn't last.
Granted a tiny fraction of her final days,
To hold her hand, to fight back tears and pray.
This ending will be so hard to overcome,
The circumstances in which we lost our mum.

ABOUT THE POET:

Mary Virginia Botten has enjoyed writing poetry for many years and turns to it even more during difficult times of life. At ten years old, she was stunned when her poem was displayed on the classroom wall.

She is married with two grown sons and has lived in Kent (The Garden of England) her whole life. She loves writing, reading,...

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