Remembrance of
My Fathers Death
12/11/2000

It is six years
Later
And I stand in
The dark and light
A candle listening
To Barber’s
Adagio for Strings
Like I always do
At 6:15pm when you
Died.
I had rushed back to
Ohio on a jet
And you desparately
Struggled
To stay alive to
See me one last time.
I think back of the
Howling winter winds
And snow tempest
Outside
And you lying there
Barely clinging,
Wasting away from
Lung cancer.
You were trembling
And murmured a few
Things to me,
Barely audible.
There was
The amazing beauty
Of your wife and two
Sons holding
Your hands and giving
You our blessings to
Go off to wherever
Death takes you
And within a minute
Of that
It happened.
It seemed extraordinary as
Your eyes looked
Up slowly and froze
Like some
Renaissance painting
And you
Seemed to float
Away
Suffused in a
Hint of
Holiness.
This all happened
within fifteen minutes
of my arrival.
You battled just
long enough for
The last goodbye.
I came away even
More inspired that
Death is not
To be feared
But is part of something
Greater
To which we don’t have
The answer.
As I sit here and
Remember you I realize
Nobody else will ever
Meet you here on
Earth
And know you as I
Did.
You meant the world to
Me and I will probably
Never fully know all the
Sacrifices you made
To make my life
Better.
As I think of you I realize
So many are in the same
Place with those they
Lost,
And I can tell you that
Wherever you are
Outside of that grave on
The hill that says
John Juchnowski
11/17/1937 - 12/11/2000
You will always be carried
Around inside me
Until I too
Take off on that
Ultimate
Trip
That
Death
Will bring to me too,
and hopefully,
we will be together
like we were before!