IN MEMORAM

There were four sisters, born 1912, 1914, 1916 and 1918. The eldest died first, then the youngest, then the second eldest (my mother) and the survivor was my favouritist auntie, my darling Auntie Frances.

Every day houses are falling down cliffs;
Some mean, some stately,
And every day the eroding cliffs
Bring them down one by one.
Last night the house I knew and loved
Collapsed and fell into the sea
And all of it was washed away.
And such a sturdy house it was,
With a roof to depend upon
And walls to keep out dragons,
Its was such a sensible,
Four-square house,
Not garish or showy in any way,
But passers-by who looked at it
Wished they knew it better.
The welcome those times
I came to visit was
Loving, warm and gentle,
And I felt happy in that house;
I felt that I belonged.

But it had known some storms,
that house;
such storms had that house known!
Calamities had howled around it,
when terrors had torn the sky.
Trees in the garden had been uprooted
and frightened flowers dragged from bed
and pinned against a fence.
The moon might weep,
but that house stood firm,
with faith in its design,
and it gave shelter to all who came
and asked to be inside.

I knew the cliff was coming near;
I'd known the house would sometime fall;
It was leaning just a bit, and
Cracks were in the walls;
We said "goodbye"
That house and I,
We knew the end was near.

But when they said that you had gone,
We lost - the world and I -
A landmark to be treasured;
We lost, the world and I,
a wise and loving friend.