- Farewell Song
The French doors opened, and my
heels clacked across the wood floor
of a nearly barren room.
I glanced at a wall where my grandfather's
desk had been just a day ago.
Stripped of all else, only my piano stood,
reminding me of my living room's former warmth.
I pulled out the bench and opened
my hymn book, at random, for one final song:
Nearer, my God, to Thee.
Before the first line was finished,
I heard my granddaughter toddling
through the door. Soon after, my daughter
came in, and in her sweet soprano voice
she sang the second verse, and then,
my husband joined in on the next refrain.
They stood behind me, singing--
and with that I realized:
three generations had joined together
for the last time--here, in our old family home.
Somehow, as they sang the last stanza,
There in my Father's home, safe and at rest,
There in my Savior's love, perfectly blest;
Age after age to be, nearer my God to Thee…
I looked at my mother's lamp on the piano,
and the space where grandfather's desk had been--
then imagined two more generations
silently accompanying us.