Keep Smiling…with Rosie Preston

By Rosie Preston

During the past few weeks, I have been filing papers found in a suitcase. It’s amazing the strange things I find to write on since I forget to keep a notebook by my side. I find myself grabbing anything I can to quickly write down my thoughts so I won’t forget them.

The following prose may not make sense to you, but I read it twice and knew it could be shared. On a daily basis, our lives have adapted to the danger of endurance. The news is always breaking, and people are “breaking” when separated from a relative or friend being wheeled away from the hospital emergency room into the depths of a special hall. Doctors say that visitation, touching or hugging is not permitted, which brings a deafening and screaming silence as tears rush down thousands of faces.

How could I not be surprised when I saw a display photo on the TV screen of the coronavirus? How can it be so beautiful and as colorful as only an artist could imagine? How could something that looks so enticing be so deadly?

So I sent this prose to be published in The Messenger newspaper. I would love to hear from you and learn what you have experienced during these trying days. My news is that my sister and I got a chance to see my mother through a window at the nursing home. The nurse relayed the conversation since my mother could not see or hear us. But she did say she loved us and asked about her daughter in Alaska. She also told us to go home and get warm. I studied my mom’s face, wishing I could touch her like I used to when applying face cream and lotion to her body. Oh, dear mother, we are not alone in our heartache of you being so near but so far away!

Risk and Distance
Life changing week
New revelations
New understanding
Different perspective
Learning and applying
Risk taken
And related distance
Eye opening
Life flows slowly
Acknowledgement confirmed
Unbelievable never expected
Loving sleep
Then big surprise
Waking from unspeakable
Dreams too intense
Can’t comprehend
Where did this come from
Does one start
Over again
After the heartbreak
Though many have
Left this world
It is past
Yes, from deep heartache
Grief will begin
Speak to us
Oh Lord
The cover eventually lifts
As quickly as it blew in
As from a soul
Light as the tearing wind