Everyday people die

but sometimes it catches you

so off-guard

you can only question why

I’d saved the paper from three days before

hoping to get a chance

to read through it

once time offered more

So, on this rainy morning, I pulled it out

looked through the news

scanned the ads

then an obituary invoked an inner shout

I went into a shocked state

for she was my doctor

had delivered a child of mine

I’d just visited her of late

Although she did not look well

and I’d been told she was ill

I believed her to be on the mend

after she’d recently tripped and fell

Yes, I had received a letter

that noted she would be

taking a break from work

but never did I think she wouldn’t get better

But there it was in black on white

she’d died three days

past Christmas morning

my mind just couldn’t make it right

Somehow I felt I was meant to know

since onto that paper

I had held

but, reading those words was such a huge blow

It may take days for it to sink in

I’ve thought of her family

a husband, two girls, a father

how difficult it must have been

What was the reason

a brain tumor

some kind of fate

or, was it just her season

A sense of sorrow overtakes me

stops me in my tracks

then a wish to live fully and long

to become everything that I’m meant to be

Yes, dear people die all the time

it really makes me think of them

and how they spent their lives

then I realize I must make the most

of every minute of  mine