Joy was born before the sun fell and the stars rose. Pink booties began a thousands steps. Exchanged in time for pigtails and Cinderella. Fairy dust, tulle, ballerina slippers with dreams hung in a room. Seasons required a positioning of importance. Trophies and banners displayed with pride. Confidence thrived. Trials of puberty visited too soon. Challenges handled with loving discipline were part and parcel of life’s promised blossoming.

The shores of our fancy etched memories and milestones. We sat in uneasy chairs, taking deep breaths before the stroke of midnight. Her glass slippers were not as fragile as our hearts. Tomorrow she would fly with an inherent strength of determination. Lessons extolling the wonder of magnificent birds as they are pushed from the nest now roost on our sill. Little did we know then... a prophecy in motion. But we weren’t ready; emptying ourselves into the blazing soul of her, we bid farewell.

So beautiful she is...still ...within the photographs of our chronicles. The autumnal juncture of life spread a dark cloud:heavy, unrelenting, unforgiving; trapping her soaring spirit into the caisson of a spider’s lullaby. Edges of life became raw. Emotions muddled by the cacophony of troubled noise. Happiness smudged away like charcoal lines-fading, fading, fading...gone. Our love, endless as the oceans, keeps hope binding. She will always know, even within her raging tempest, our lighthouse is stalwart and resolute. Ne’er a faultering beam to guide her way...back home

to depths of despair
snatched from our loving arms
our sweet daughter fell