Losing you was not a part of my plan,
Not the day the war broke out,
Nor any day following it,
Soon though,
It became painful and a real blow that I was struck with.

We met on the summers eve,
Two years before the Archduke was slain,
Before Treaties and agreements brought the World to its knees,
It was a beautiful time and we were wed on a hillside,
Frowned upon yet without a care.

I loved you for all the days that I knew you,
Before the Great War claimed you,
Took you from me,
Loved you with everything I was,
I still love you with the same now.

I will never forget the day you first left,
Gone to represent your King,
To protect the country you knew and loved,
Keep it safe for your future newborn,
Born April 1915.

You wrote of how you kept your pictures close,
Those few and precious things,
Protected them from the rain and the mud,
In those dismal, dank, dark trenches,
Which became your penultimate home.

You were in the trenches in Belgium,
So far away from me,
I hope that you felt my love though,
All those miles away,
With every inch of my heart.

I sit now and watch the poppies,
Blowing in the breeze,
Planted here in Yorkshire,
And remember you with love,
And pride.

People talk of the heroes,
They talk of my heroes,
The two brothers that never returned,
Of you my love and dear Andrew,
Who died bravely serving side by side.

My body has scarcely been touched since,
I have not felt the need,
I stay alone and seldom revisit,
The pleasure you bestowed upon me,
And how good that pleasure felt.

The wind carries me your caress now,
It whispers the words from your heart,
It tells me the things you never got to say,
Even though every word,
I already knew.

It speaks of how much you missed me,
How you hoped your child would grow strong,
You didn't think you would make it back,
But you didn't want me to cry,
There was always some hope in your mind.

When the letter came through to me,
To tell me the last thing I wanted to hear,
I sat and silently looked on,
Fulfilling your wish in the case,
Not to cry.

People wondered how I was so calm,
They didn't see inside my heart,
Didn't understand how I was tearing apart,
Every aching moment,
Since you were taken away.

Everything I am now,
I am because of you,
A wife, a widow, a lover,
A friend, a grandma, a mother,
Lost since that dreadful moment.

The darkness across the world,
The darkness across my heart,
The void in the hearts of the people,
The void in the hearts of our nations,
That could never be refilled.

Though your child was never raised by you,
Your legacy lives on,
And now it is passed through the generations,
And a warning to come round again,
Learn from the past.

So with this last breath's whisper,
I feel closer to you,
Than I have felt in many years,
The decades that have flown without tears,
Light like the gentle butterfly.

I join you again in matrimony,
Having lived years of life you have not,
Joining you in easy loving,
Being free from my hearts aching pain,
To love you once again.