Mum’s story: Let not the children suffer
Today is Mother’s Day, and we come to the conclusion of my series about my Mother’s story. When she was first ill, she met with a therapist, and during that time wrote a lot of poetry in order to process what she was going through.
In many ways today is the end of one series and the beginning of another, as I will be sharing a couple of these over the next few weeks.
But on Mother’s Day, I felt it was entirely appropriate to post a poem she wrote about myself and my sister – who were 8 and 4 years old respectively at the time (the photo below was taken a few years earlier…)
It’s called ‘Let not the children suffer’ and in many senses it is a prayer asking for protection over us, a poem written out of the overflow of the heart. It was birthed out of her deep love for us and desire for us to be protected from what she was going through.
It is relatively short, but I still find it moving to this very day, and I hope on Mother’s Day it provides comfort, encouragement and inspiration to you too.
Let not the children suffer!
They cannot bear the load
of all my tortuous searching.
Grant them a straight, free road!
Their lives still before them –
the joy, the pain, the quest.
My heart aches with the loving
as I kiss them at their rest.
(Flora Prescott, circa 1985)
Related posts:
Mum’s story: April 29th – My day she died
[…] My Mum is a Patron Saint, because for the last 15 years of her life she battled against her own brain, her lack of a short-term memory, against all life could throw at her – and was able to survive, and be an incredible Mum. A Mum who wrote a prayer in the form of a poem, pleading that God spare us any more suffering (which you can read here). […]