You lose them over and over,
sometimes many times a day.
When the loss, momentarily forgotten,
creeps up,
and attacks you from behind.
Fresh waves of grief as the realisation hits home,
they are gone.
Again.
You don’t just lose someone once,
you lose them every time you open your eyes to a new dawn,
and as you awaken,
so does your memory,
so does the jolting bolt of lightning that rips into your heart,
they are gone.
Again.
Losing someone is a journey,
not a one-off.
There is no end to the loss,
there is only a learned skill on how to stay afloat,
when it washes over.
Be kind to those who are sailing this stormy sea,
they have a journey ahead of them,
and a daily shock to the system each time they realise,
they are gone,
Again.
You don’t just lose someone once,
you lose them every day,
for a lifetime.
Donna Ashworth
You can buy printable versions of Donna Ashworth’s poems in her shop, here
This is beautiful!! I just lost my first born grand daughter, she was taken from us way too soon.
I am so very very sorry for your terrible loss. I hope this helps somewhat with your grief. You can buy this as a printed picture from Donna Ashworth’s site.
This is so true. My beloved Papa died last August. It hits me at bedtime these days. I miss him so much. Your words ring so true. I found your blog looking for the Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter. I have an A6 size in pigeon blue dance floor heading to me from a Canadian online shop.
I am so sorry to hear about your dad. My deepest condolences to you and your family.
Who is this image created by? It’s beautiful… I just lost my mother and it makes me think of her!
I have been trying to find the artist for a while now. Nothing comes up on a reverse image search, just more of the same viral image attached to the poem. If you ever find out who it is, please let me know so I can credit the artist. Thank you!
No longer will I look at people at a funeral like I did. A lot of years were spent looking at them in a different way. No more; now I will recognize the burden they will carry