‘Til death comes

Written in limerick format but without humour.

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With a sigh the young man looked down
His brow, furrowed with a frown
“It’s bad news” the doctor said
As his wife lay in bed
Wearing her hospital gown

As the doctor’s words rang in his ears
With the worst news and deepest fears
He held his wife’s hand
The life they had planned
Was now shortened by many years

Tears filled both of his eyes
He sat as he started to cry
Her words to him stung
As the air left his lungs
“It’s ok, I’m ready to die”

She’d noticed a lump in her breast
‘A tumour or cancer’ she guessed
With gloves of latex
The doctors ran checks
The truth was still hard to digest

Breast cancer at twenty nine
Her health began to decline
She fought like a warrior
And asked him to marry her
He told her “I’m yours and you’re mine!”

Their wedding, beautiful and quick
Before she became overly sick
A day to remember
Fourteenth of December
But the clock continued to tick

During long conversations of love
They thanked the heavens above
For the time they’d been granted
Their lives enchanted
Belonging together hand in glove

By the date of December twenty one
Her life was passed and gone
He crumbled and shattered
His soul was left tattered
The will to go on, he had none

He stayed in the house day by day
To his friends he had nothing to say
Lost in his sadness
Contemplating madness
Wishing his life away

A few months after she left
His mood still decidedly bereft
It was time to decide
Whether he lived or died
Finally choosing to exit stage left

Deciding to end his own life
In reply to the loss of his wife
He walked to a cliff
And crying he sniffed
Preferring falling to the edge of a knife

Standing he readied himself
As he stood on the grey rocky shelf
“Are you quite certain
You want to draw the curtain
And end it by killing yourself?”

The voice of a woman asked kindly
He decided to step back quite blindly
She held out her hand
And helped him to stand
He allowed her to do it resignedly

“I have nothing to live for,” he said
“I wish that I were just dead
I miss her so much
I just want to touch
And stroke the hair on her head”

Her hand held on to him tight
And sitting deep into the night
He told her of his wife
The love of his life
And they both put the world to rights

Over months their friendship bloomed
Allowing him plenty of room
To unload his emotions
About his devotion
Leaving behind him, his gloom

Time went by as it does
And they were both happy because
His life had been saved
And his future was paved
By the woman who gave his life cause

Two years from the fateful day
When his wife sadly went away
He married again
To a new woman, Gwen
Until death do them part they will stay