Who can bear the loss of a life,
A daughter, a sister, a wife, a friend, a mentor,
All rolled together in one?

Who can know the extent of breath,
Whether it is an hour, a day, a month, a year,
All condensed to form a living!

Who can redeem the lost,
Restore the marred, repair the breach,
All making it anew!

Who can fill the essence of someone that
Twined her life in birth, interlaced her days in marriage,
Walked together in time, but unbraided herself in death!

Who can fathom the length of a trail,
The height of a flight, the depth of a plunge,
Or the breadth of a range!

Who can but You O Lord,
Calm the storm, quiet the seas, carry the weak,
And destroy death’s decay!

Strengthen that which remains,
Smoothen that which trembles,
Straighten that which bends,
Supplement that which was lost,
O God of my existence, my sustenance!
© Sabina Tagore Immanuel

*My youngest sibling moved on to greener pastures, painless place & no-tears permanence on Aug 30th 2017 in Trichy, S. India. She was fiercely loyal, intensely committed, passionately vocal person, born homemaker, intuitive teacher, instinctive mother, warrior wife, dutiful daughter & supportive sibling. She battled sickness with tenacity and fought the good fight till the end. I wrote this as an outpouring of the constriction of my heart as her absence hit me with force beyond compare.

As maid of honor at our cousin’s wedding when she was at the height of her womanhood!