Hold Them A Little Closer

I've been trying to do more of my scrapbooking pages, and have been "talking" scrapbooking with some friends, and came across this picture that I want to share. This is my oldest 5 from about 13 years ago. It's a precious picture to me. All the innocence. Oh how I wish I could go back to those days, and savor them more. I am so thankful for the memories, and precious pictures, like this. Below is a poem a friend wrote when she lost a son. Little did I know when she shared it with me many years ago, how much I would be able to relate to it. I thought it fit this picture as well.

Picture is of (left to right) Heather, Jayson, Heidi, Stephen & Matthew - and our then lab puppy Shadow)

HOLD THEM A LITTLE CLOSER

I pray you never walk through
The agony I’ve known
I pray that all your little ones
Will stay until they’ve grown.
I pray that you can really hear
My brokenhearted cries
So you will know the anguish
When a child dies.

I pray it makes you hold them
Closer to your breast
And savor every moment
As if it were the best.
For none of us can ever know
How soon they will be gone
And all we’ll have are memories
To hold us in the dawn.

Oh dear and tired mother
Of rambunctious little lambs
Do not grow weary of washing
And helping little hands.
Remember that these precious ones
May not be with us long
And we will have to suffer
Such pain when they are gone
So when you cry at one more day
Of toys spread on the floor
Think of if they weren’t there
To mess up anymore.
Think of all the precious things
You’ll miss and wish you had
You’ll see those things that irked you so
They weren’t all that bad.

Hold them closer for awhile
And stroke their silky hair
And touch them gently once for me
I wish that I were there.
For as I cry out for my son
Who cannot feel my touch
My heart cries out to tell you all
You can never love too much.

© Copyright 1997 Vickilynn Haycraft
August 1, 1997
11 months after her son Benjamin died