Elaine Gantz Wright is a speaker, writer, and social media strategist. Contact her at elgantz()yahoo.com.
I have departed from the norm on this post—drafting a tribute to my ailing mom and dad. Functioning as a single, working mom in the “sandwich generation” is challenging and often exhausting–with aging parents clinging to this earth on one side and iconoclastic teens defiantly creating their brave new world on the other. The stubbornness and isolation in both contrast the poignant fragility that often dissolves my heart. So, this is for you:
Letting go.
No more need to give to feel.
Her bare spirit shines — less the veneer.
Without speech, without talk.
Now real.
Transcending words.
The essence of her soul.
Awareness without comprehension.
Cognition, no.
She looks at me finally – and actually sees.
Letting go of need to know.
Content to be.
Helpless though.
Fights her wheeled prison.
Her body unknown.
Sings without words.
Feels without touch.
And yet he still clings.
Desperate – together but alone.
Denies to suppress.
Still nerves don’t lie.
No control and seizures defy.
Those pills that made him lame.
What they resisted they claim.
Anger. Passion. Pain.
A stone cold wall.
What a loss — so far.
Tear us apart and we fall.
Oh, to let love . . .
So, letting go.
Elaine Gantz Wright 