My mother thought it cute
when she sewed us matching dresses.
I thought I was too big
and protested by making ugly faces.

Several years passed
and when I asked to borrow the car.
The answer would be yes,

 if I'd take my little sister and not go too far.

No one had much money,
so when I began to date,
my boyfriend could sit with the family,
but wasn't allowed to stay very late. 

He and I would watch TV.
Little sister just watched us.

I thought she was a little pest

and wanted her on the very next bus.

But time continued passing
and eventually we both grew.
She became my best friend,
no longer the pest that I once knew.

In time we both married
and wound up living miles apart.

We'd spend hours on the phone,

sharing matters of the heart.

She was a beautiful, witty woman,
who could always make me smile,
even though we were separated

by so very many miles.

Then came that terrible day
in December of eighty eight

heading to get her boys from school,

hurrying because she was late.

Her husband drove up on the accident
as he came home from afar.
He thought to himself that it looked fatal,
then he recognized her car.

A head-on collision
involving her car and a truck.
Both drivers lost their lives,
both vehicles twisted into junk. 

Two families grieved that day.
Two sons lost their mother,
A husband lost a wife

and one sister lost another.

The wreck was so horrific,
the casket would stay closed.
Why those things happen

no one really knows.

That fatal day was years ago,

her sons are now grown men,

but she hasn't been forgotten

we still mourn her now and again.

When I was barely seven,
"From Heaven," Mother said you came.

I know you're there again

and that you suffer no more pain.

© copyright Donna Hale Chandler