Grave Stone

I dedicate this poem to two of my daughters, Julianna and Ary Anna. Julianna was still born in 1992. This December she would have been 19 years old. Our whole family misses her deeply, even those who were not born when she died. Ary Anna was my daughter, who at six years of age, stood at a grave in Little Bethel Cemetery in Duncanville, Texas and was moved to tears as she grieved for the parents whose child had been buried there.  

My daughter stood there all alone

Face to face with the old gray stone

Weathered and cracked by the hands of time

Chiseled on its face was this simple rhyme,

O blessed little sunbeam,
O child of love and prayer,
We give thee to the keeping,
Of the tender Shepherd's care

She pondered as she traced her finger round the date

What was the reason for this innocent child’s fate?

The carving stated September 22 to September 24

The babe had lived just three days; not a single moment more.

She whispered the word “sunbeam” and then “love and prayer”

She then began to wonder, “Does the Shepherd really care?”

At first it was just a single tear but then she began to cry,

“I don’t understand, God in Heaven, why did you let this little child die.”

There were no words from the clouds up above,

No magical answer on the wings of a dove.

So I came near; put my arm ‘round her shoulder,

Knew she just needed someone to hold her.

She looked up at me with sad, wet eyes,

I tell you I hate it when my little girl cries.

Through her sobs all I heard were the words, “Little child,”

Suddenly I choked on the answer I’d compiled.

She didn’t need some neatly packed answer

Some fantasy story ‘bout a reindeer named Prancer.

She demanded I tell her why were things so,

Softly I answered, “Honey, I don’t know.”

Her face turned to a smile as she pushed up her specks,

Saying, “I didn’t realize it was all that complex.”

“If my daddy, who is so smart, doesn’t even know

Then I’ll just have to accept that sometimes things are so.”

Her heart was still hurting for the mother and dad;

Longing to hold their newly born lad.

But from that very day her heart became tender

Now to the hurting the Shepherd can send her.