Husband Death Poem

Missing My Other Half

A slightly lighthearted approach to bereavement. It's a mystery why I miss him so much, as we were both very different people, but after all the years together he had quite literally become the other half of me.

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Hi Alan Yes, we have very similar stories. I too had been married for 58 years. Like you, I have also done a creative writing course since retirement. I very much look forward to...

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My Other Half

Published by Family Friend Poems February 21, 2024 with permission of the Author.

Together for over fifty years,
times of laughter and of tears.
I fell in love with all his charms,
could dance forever in his arms.

Except he didn't dance.

He preferred to ride a horse
I'd only ride if I was forced.
He loved dogs - I must confess
I thought they made a lot of mess.

We always had a dog.

I love people and talking,
he would rather be walking.
I like to paint and write,
he felt that was alright.

But he would rather read.

He liked to ski,
that was not for me.
I like to shop,
he definitely did not.

We both had fun in the sun.

It was not a perfect match,
but he was quite a catch,
and now that he is here no more
I feel stranded on an empty shore.

Half of me has gone.

ABOUT THE POET:

Ann D. Stevenson only began writing after she retired, when she joined a Writing for Well-Being course. It was during a difficult time, as her husband had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She found writing very therapeutic, more especially poetry. It was a real boost to her morale when Family Friend Poems began publishing her...

more by Ann D. Stevenson

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by Amara450
2 months ago

Hello Ann. I love the honesty and emotion you put in your poetry. I think that these things have to be experienced by the writer to feel the depth of emotion needed to express it in words. I nursed my dear wife of fifty-eight years through terminal cancer at home in 2017 and recently have had the experience of seeing her best friend, who I was still very close to, succumb to dementia this year and go into residential care. I have some work, penned in the darkest days, that still bring tears when I try read them. Thank you for the positive comments on my work. I am new to the site and still trying to find my way around it. Reading your biography it seems that we came to writing in a similar way. I didn't start until I retired and attended an adult education course on creative writing. I look forward to reading more of your work. With thanks. Alan.

by Ann D. Stevenson, Gloucestershire, UK Poet
2 months ago

Hi Alan

Yes, we have very similar stories. I too had been married for 58 years. Like you, I have also done a creative writing course since retirement. I very much look forward to reading more of your work.

Very best wishes,
Ann

by Susan Vidd
8 months ago

Dear Ann, I love the story about you and your husband. I can definitely relate. It is a beautiful poem about two people complementing each other, even though they have different interests. I am so sorry for your loss. continue writing. I do believe writing can soothe the soul. From across the ocean I am wishing you the best. Susan.

by Ann D. Stevenson, Gloucestershire, UK Poet
9 months ago

I hope and pray you do indeed get at least 50 years with your other half.
Thank you for your lovely comment about my writing. It means a great deal. Very best wishes, Ann.

by Patricia A Fleming, Trenton
9 months ago

Oh Ann, So simplistic but so powerful. Your words, so genuinely felt, made my heart ache. I tend to ramble on trying to get my feelings across and not being able to explain my self without bombarding the reader with words. But you have the talent to reveal your deepest pain to us in a handful of words. When I read the very last verse, I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. You so easily used your words to slowly reveal the honest depth of your pain. Life can be beautiful but yet so unbearably cruel. How wonderful to have the gift of true, abiding love with someone, to know them inside out, to grow through your differences as people and have the most beautiful connection as human beings, a connection that turns 2 hearts into one. But my God, to lose that half of yourself, to almost be half dead, I can't even fathom that kind of pain. Thank you for making the rest of us privy to your broken heart with your words and then give that gift to us.

by Ann D. Stevenson, Gloucestershire, UK Poet
9 months ago

Patricia, you are always so kind and understanding - your comments mean a great deal to me.

by Doug W Benson
9 months ago

Ann:
I love everything you write! Thanks for continuing to share your life and loss with us in such a lighthearted and beautiful way. I can only hope and pray for at least fifty years with "my other half."

Best,
Doug