The Meeting

This is about the 1st time I meant the family which would later become my in laws.

THE MEETING

As I stood there with the man I had only begun to see,
In a room of strangers I had never known,
Beyond the doors of the ICU.

He lay on the rigid hospital bed,
The crisp white sheet,
Barley covering his body.

As everyone looked down on him with tears in their eyes,
Knowing the breaths that he took were not his own,
But the breaths of the life support.

So strong a pain I felt in my heart,
When the decision was made,
And the man was allowed to die.

I found my self crying,
By the sides of these people,
Wondering why I was put here.

I felt such a strange closeness,
To these people at that moment,
A bond, which cannot be described.

Little did I know,
That these people that I stood by,
Were to be my in-laws.

And that moment we shared,
And the tears that we shed,
And the prayers that we prayed.

Were for my Father in law,
Who I would never formally meet,
But whose death I witnessed.
March 2002