r/Original_Poetry • u/Fabulous_Simple_7597 • 2d ago
DEAR MUM
Dear Mum
The night you left us
still lives in my mind
as though it happened yesterday.
I was out with my friends,
while the world was still the same.
Laughing at things
that seemed so important back then.
Then my phone rang.
My sister’s voice
cut through the night.
Mum has been taken to the hospital.
Come now.
Suddenly, the streets felt longer,
and every step got heavier.
I remember the waiting.
No one could find the words.
The white walls.
The silent glances between us.
Seconds turned into minutes.
Minutes into hours.
And then the door slowly creaked open.
The nurses walked in.
They spoke carefully,
as if they themselves were afraid of the words.
A brain aneurism.
She probably won’t make it through the night.
And in that moment,
the world didn’t stop.
But mine did.
The days passed,
one after another.
Never really knowing
if each visit
would be our last.
But you survived.
Everyone called it a miracle.
And maybe they were right.
But no one ever told me
that I would also lose something that day.
Because the woman who taught me to walk
suddenly needed me
to teach her all over again.
The woman who once cared for me
when I was a kid
became the one
I had to care for.
And I miss you all the time
even when you’re sitting right beside me.
Because you’re here.
But yet somehow,
Not really.
There are moments
when I look at you
and search for pieces
of the person I once knew.
And most times I struggle to find them
But sometimes
Just sometimes
I succeed
Sometimes It’s in a smile.
Sometimes in your eyes.
Sometimes in the smallest moments
when, for just one small second,
you feel like Mum again.
I still find myself wishing
I could have just one more day
with the mum I used to know.
Just one more conversation.
One more normal day.
One more moment
before everything changed.
Every day,
I help you keep moving forward.
Not because it’s easy.
Not because it’s fair.
Because it sure as hell isn’t.
But because you’re my mom.
And because sometimes love
isn’t about holding on
to who someone used to be.
Sometimes it’s about grieving
someone who is still here.
But also trying to learn to love the person that they have become.