April 6 Poem: Poem for caregivers

S has gone to Utah for the week. I am holding down the fort. I know she is only one kid so I'm not outnumbered but I am still anxious about being the single parent for 4 days. I've got to be careful not to loose my temper and keep it together, but I've also got to make sure she bathes, gets dressed, gets her diaper changed. Yikes!

So this week I am thinking a lot about single parents and what amazing people they are! At my work I frequently meet children of single parents and am so impressed by the men and women who raised them and the men and women their now adult children have become. Moreover, I am, at work, thinking about annointing of the sick and those who care for the sick, ill, and dying and show them deep and tender compassion. Somehow these two pieces, single parenthood, and caregiving seem interconnected.

I think of those I know who are walking shadowed paths

With a loved one.

Illness, disease, and time

Have taken their savage toll

In one so loved, who has loved in return.

A circle, a bond unbreakable

By cruel reality.

Shared joy, pain,

Tears, laughter,

Hope and despair.

Are they not the same

When bound together in love?

Those I know walking this path

Display astounding courage,

Dressed in tender strenght and awe-inspiring devotion.

Angels stand guard and watch in wonder At such love.

A hushed world bows its head.

In respectful silence.

May they know peace.

-Mrs. Gretchen Olheiser

Geitz, Elizabeth Rankin eds. et al,. Women's Uncommon Prayers: OUr lives revealed, nurtured, celebrated (Morehouse publishing, Harrisburg, PA) 2000.