Who Stood By Your Grave....

on the day that you were buried?
I know you were my relative,
when born and who you married.
Still the days of your life are a mystery,
as soldier, father, friend,
What were the sorrows, joys and memories
that accompanied you to your end?
Just how you came to this piece of land, like so many others?
Lure of a stake? Bad memories? or one too many brothers?
Dates have been recorded,
but they tell so little about a life.
What of the three dead children,
or how you were left without a wife?
Did you have the time to mourn?
Or was pain like this a given?
But what with the two babies left,
you had to go on living.
You married again, and had six more
one was my grandmother.
Still, I wish I knew the story of how you enticed another.
The things you faced and dealt with,
would overwhelm your children of today,
I'll never know who stood there then,
but I'M here now, and grateful you led the way.
 
Leanne