Mid-term Break

I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close,
At two o’clock our neighbors drove me home.

In the porch I met my father crying–
He had always taken funerals in his stride–
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand

And tell me they were “sorry for my trouble,”
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.

Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,

Wearing a poppy bruise on the left temple,
He lay in the four foot box as in a cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four foot box, a foot for every year.

Seamus Heaney

I’m pretty sure that many, many people come away from your presentation reflecting on their experiences as well. So many of us share in one way or another the scars of cancer in our families. Way beyond kayaking this makes what you are doing so important. Much more so than anything I could write here.

I’m also very glad our paths crossed!

This hit me hard when i read it late last night and i had to take the night to reflect on my thoughts. I am very glad that the journey we are both on allowed our paths to cross and that you could take somthing away from the lecture to reflect on your own life. I feel very lucky to have been given the oportunity to keep Marks memory going after so many years. You have an incredible way with words that i admire. You seem to be able to put across feeling in text wich is for me one of the hardest challenges.

Thanks for everything.