I hadn’t seen you in a long time.

Not since my mind broke

and I checked out of this world.

I was caught up in my own mind,

I wanted to get back home and hide

and I didn’t notice how severely bad

things had gotten for you.

Neither of us looked the same.

You lost weight and I surely gained.

Some of the last words

I said to you were thank you.

I wish I was visiting

under different circumstances

and that I didn’t have to ask that question.

I know you didn’t mind

and you were there

for my mom all the time,

but thank you.

Not only for that moment,

not only for that one favor.

Thank you for being my mother’s friend,

thank you for being there for her

and thank you for being someone who could understand.

Thank you for giving her a shoulder

that I know she could lay her head on.

My mother is tough,

but I know sometimes carrying

that burden can get very rough.

Thank you for making my mom smile,

she has had a rough life.

Hell, sometimes it’s me

who gives her a lot of strife.

You have left an image in my mind,

of a person strong and kind,

who shared so much love

and who gave what she could

to a woman who I love.

Ms. Gaynell, you are truly

someone to look up to.

I only hope that one day

I’ll have as big of a heart as you do.

That one day, this chiseled

rock of a heart that’s heavy in my chest

will thaw out and grow warm.

I thank you, Ms. Gaynell,

and I hope the road you now travel

will treat you well.

You have parted this world,

but I’ll never forget

you were like a burning light

in my mother’s time of night.

So, thank you, Ms. Gaynell.

- dedicated to Gaynell Jackson