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Remembering Mimi

You held our hands too tightly when we crossed the road.
You gave us money for ice-creams if we bought you one.

You took us out for tea and cakes when we were young.
You made fried bread or trifle for when we got home.

We talked of life and god and of our deepest fears.
You told us all the memories of your earlier years.

You didn't like the loud noise that we children made.
We had to use the spare room for our rowdier games.

I coached you in your stories and your poetry.
We brought you daily papers, womens' magazines.

You shouted out "Who is it?" when we got indoors.
You threw us out the key if we'd forgotten ours.

You crayoned all sorts of pictures with arthritic hands.
We told our problems and you tried to understand.

You worried all your life that you were going to die,
We said you would outlive us,
                                                 Sadly, you were right.

 

 

Note: This poem is now more than 25 years old (as am I)

grandmamemorial

◄ Finders Keepers

In Memoriam ►

Comments

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Aviva Rifka Bhandari

Tue 29th Dec 2020 23:32

Thank you Emeka for your comment. Much appreciated.
I have read a few of your poems tonight and can say that 'Great choice of words laden with deep-knitted emotions.' summarises your own writing very well too.

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Emeka Collins

Tue 29th Dec 2020 22:38

Great choice of words laden withe deep-knitted emotions.

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Aviva Rifka Bhandari

Tue 29th Dec 2020 22:14

Thank you Keith, I am really glad that this poem was able to bring you such strong and special memories too.

My mother went to live with her mother after divorcing my father (when I was just 6 months old) so I and my sister grew up from then on living with my grandmother as part of the household (although she had her own rooms they were not separately accessed). Although my grandmother didn't have a chaise longue she would preside over gatherings from her special armchair. Her mobility was always affected by health issues, in earlier years she would as the poem recalls make occasional excursions which were fond memories, but in later years she was largely house-bound yet still a vibrant and precious personality.

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keith jeffries

Tue 29th Dec 2020 21:05

The relationship described in this poem is a mirror image of the relationship I had with my paternal grandmother. On reading it I was back with her, in her sitting room, as she laid on her chaise longue with a cigarette in a black holder smoking and sipping pale ale. I loved her so much. When a poem can take you back over sixty years and stir one's imagination, the poet has achieved something very special indeed.
Thank you for this
Keith

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Aviva Rifka Bhandari

Tue 29th Dec 2020 16:40

Thank you Shifa, I am flattered and honoured that you think so.

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Shifa Maqba

Tue 29th Dec 2020 16:24

This is the most beautiful elegy I've read in a long time. Chills!

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Aviva Rifka Bhandari

Tue 29th Dec 2020 16:19

Thank you to Hugh, Paul and Stephen for your kind comments.
Thanks also to all those who decided to click 'Like'.

Tomorrow's blog will also be a memorial poem. It was also written in consideration of my grandmother, but has a different perspective and is non-specific so it can be for anyone who might have lost anyone that they had a caring relationship with.

(Sadly Paul's comment is no longer viewable since he left the site)

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Stephen Gospage

Tue 29th Dec 2020 15:41

This is a wonderful tribute.

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Hugh

Tue 29th Dec 2020 06:44

She will read this from up above,
And cherish your words of true love.

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