My mother lived to be eighty-five.
Her memory in me will always survive.

I am mortal, I realise, and it is humbling;
as I watch this passing, my youth is crumbling.

I respect her and the path she’s trod —
her awareness, good; her experience, hard.

I know I will follow; may I be wise enough to know
her example, my company, wherever I go.

I will remember how she cared for me,
happily, joyfully, ungrudgingly.

Thank you Mum for life, trust, love, and all that;
when you held me… when you held me back.

So strong and brave and true, you have lived your life,
the world is blessed by your light.

You have seen the cycles of birth, life, death, and spirits reborn.
You have endured and rejoiced — and you have mourned.

Thus, you gained knowledge, power to teach.
You gained compassion, power to reach.

Now your journey’s over; now you have arrived.
May we honour and revere you the rest of our lives.

You have travelled so far; may you now have rest.
And you worked so hard, you deserve the best.

As a new cycle begins for you, it begins for us,
for you are now the actualised example of fullness.

In the Book of Life, you are one chapter ahead.
It has always been so, of this I have read.

So it is now. Continue in praise,
continue in peace, until the end of days.

___

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