Mel-Moo's Poem

Our niece, Melanie, wrote this beautiful poem for school. She is 17 years old. Waverly always called her Mel-Moo and loved talking with her in the phone. She was her favorite cousin and hero.

“Memory”

By Melanie R

 

Sometimes I wish I had a time machine

I would open the door, step inside, and program

Not some major historical event,

But instead a memory.

 

I wish I could go back

To when I was little.

Specifically when we visited my Aunt, Uncle, and cousin in Ohio

We were all so much more carefree back then

All blissfully ignorant of the future

There are two things that really stick out from that trip

One, the Columbus Science Museum

The other, the scene from Titanic where the boat is slowly sinking in the dark

 

I wish I could go back

To when my cousin could follow me around and around

And around, 

And around, 

And around…

I can still hear her calling my name

Chasing me around my Grandmother's house

In circles like a merry-go-round that would never end,

But it did.

Life was so much clearer then.

 

I wish I could go back 

To the first time I saw Frozen.

the theater was crowded and my sister wanted to sit high up,

So I sat with her up towards the top while the rest of my family sat across the theater

The highlight of that movie for me

was when Anna freezes toward the end.

The room was dead silent, you could hear a pin drop

And all of a sudden I hear my cousin from across the entire room

Laughing her laugh that only she could create

And was so uniquely her.

I’d love to go back and revisit that moment

When it seemed as if the worst thing that could happen

Was that someone died in a Disney movie

 

I wish I could go back

To last summer

Before one of the scariest moments of my life

Before I could clearly see the effects of her genetic disease

Before I looked directly into my cousin’s eyes and she didn’t recognize me

Before she looked straight through me as if I was thin air

Before the longest minute where I waited 

For that smile of recognition to slowly spread across her face

Before I felt the relief that she knew who I was

Before I wondered if I had just imagined the entire moment

 

I wish I could go back.

Back to when I knew my cousin would burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles

As soon as you mentioned her name because she was so happy

 

I wish I could go back

To before my cousin died

Because I miss her.

 

My memory is my time machine

With it I can travel anywhere I have already been

In memory I can always go back

and remember everything my cousin was able to do.

That is a miracle in itself.

 

How I remember my cousin is my choice.

Yes, I could remember everything 

She will never be able to do, 

But I choose to be thankful of everyday, every moment

That I had with her.

I choose to remember how amazing it was 

That she

Could laugh,

Could run,

Could sing,

Could speak,

Could live.

Still, that does little to dull this pain of loss,

For every memory is tinged with sadness,

Dusted by grief.

 

I once read that grief is the price of love,

And if so,

It is one I will gladly pay over and over again.

For without grief,

How can we ever know we truly loved anything of value?