Poem: I knew you had been sick for quite a while. I had no idea you were walking your last mile.

Poem: I knew you had been sick for quite a while. I had no idea you were walking your last mile.
The Andalusia Star News, by Vickie C. Wacaster, "a patient and hospice advocate for Aveanna Hospice"; 3/14/24. This poem is at the end of an article, "COLUMN: Hospice helps make most of all moments."

I knew you had been sick for quite a while.
I had no idea you were walking your last mile.
Had I known your time was so near,
Despite my fear,
I would have talked more, touched more, and loved more.
I asked about your care, your prognosis, your life,
Why couldn’t they tell me? I was your wife.
Or was I in denial? Did someone try to tell me?
Did I refuse to hear? Could I not see?
Did I refuse to accept?
Your diagnosis and prognosis, did I reject?
Was it because of unbelief?
That death snatched you as a thief.
We could have made the most of the time you had left,
If only we had not been afraid of what we felt.

Vickie “Cunningham” Wacaster 2002; now a patient and hospice advocate for Aveanna Hospice