Three generations

Three generations 

All under one roof

All living out lives

All avoiding the bumps

The bumps in the roads as they endure life

The bumps in the road that bring along grief

The bumps in the road of mixed up feelings 

Of health outcomes

Of love loss and pain 

Three generations 

It ends with me 

I can’t reproduce or continue this line 

It was never my destiny 

But I think so hard

About those above me 

About the generations that had bad days

And how they continued to breathe

I think about the lives they may have led

And how hard it might have been 

Of losing loved ones young 

Of battling through adversity

Of the constant house changes

The constant school changes

The new girl narrative

The long walks to school

The tough lessons in different times

Being out late and hitchhiking home

To not being allowed out at all

To being evacuated

To living far away from home

To running down that field behind that unfamiliar place

And watching the trains as they passed by

Waving and crying 

Missing and hoping

Life being so unsettling

Three generations 

All under one roof

Each with a story

And each with a book

Each with its hard times

And each with its tough lessons

Each with its loss 

Each with its first love

And some with its last

Grief and pain and despair

But all still here

Never gave up

Kept the fight for life

Brought into the world the next life

The next generation

That ends with me

Strong women 

Never walked from a fight 

Never gave up any battle

Lived and loved life

I will carry the lessons learned

I will stand proud and tall

And although I won’t pass it on 

I will not let it fall

To the waste side 

To be forgotten 

It will forever exist

Through the stories 

The memories

And our hard fought fights for life