My prayers go out to the family,
For they must adjust to the fact
That he is not gone on vacation
Or a business trip;
That he will not be coming home
To equip them for tomorrow,
To replay his day and listen to their stories.

My prayers go out to the family,
For reality has rhythm, and the mechanisms
Sometimes strikes
And chimes for intermission,
But this time it struck
To announce the finality of
An earthly session;
His initial experience above ground.

My prayers go out to the family.
There will be repercussions and complications
That will pull at the strength
That challenges and encourages them
To show that they have found
Energy from his memory.

My prayers go out to the family
As they struggle with the shock;
The cruel truth of the matter,
The interrupted dreams;
The world that was shattered
And must be reassembled
Until it resembles a vision off center;
A hampered vision that must reach 20/20,
For he would have wanted it that way.

Although their bodies shake
And their wills tremble,
Each step will not be taken alone.
He is the shadow in evening,
The blanket on cold nights,
The beacon of hope,
The nourishment for their souls.

He walks beside them
Apologizing for his early departure;
Despondent over not saying good-bye,
As he caught the early train to heaven.
He sits in heaven immersed in tears cried
With those who have gone ahead,
For those who are still on the journey.

My heart goes out to the family;
The hearts opened wide
From the surgical incision of death,
As life absorbs the essence of love,
They walk around in fear as they reach
For hope in the darkness of uncertainty.

My prayers go out to the family
As they search for explanations
And signs of the inevitable, the “if only’s”,
As they doubt the fairness of life,
Scoff at justice, but rationalize that the Master's plan
Is written in a text we cannot decipher.
They vacillate between the stages of mourning,
Crying, how could this happen without warning,
As they ponder lessons from his demise.
They recreate the clues, retrospective revelations
To open their eyes
To things they could have done differently,
In an effort to embrace blame
They evaluate doing or not doing, knowing, or not knowing;
Things they should have added or things to replace.
They seek memories to live by and nightmares to erase.

My heart goes out to the family.
How would he want them to act?
How would he want them to handle the fact
That he is not coming home to them,
But waits for the day when they will come
To their new residence and live without fear
Of separation.

Each life teaches us,
Each life reaches us
And grabs us at the core of our being,
Each life touches us
And it clutches us
By our souls and begs us to pay attention.
For through seeing the greatness in others
And sharing their special gifts,
We are inspired to reach our potential.
We run as fast and far as our gifts will take us;
Soar as high as wings of talent differentiates us.
As we study excellence and the pursuit
Of standards that validate,
We justify our rung on the ladder.
The harsh reality is that we must prove ourselves.
We enforce discipline.
We can't succumb to the sadder side
Of issues for they makes us angry and madder inside
Which can breach our concentration.
Time is valuable
As each minute marks our place in line.

My heart goes out to the family.
Life places them on the journey
Afloat, adrift in a raft
Surrounded by loved ones
As they perfect their craft,
They watch others as they play out
Their love ethic and work ethic,
Knowing he is watching.
They study God
As He teaches them to row.
They consciously and innately
Take notes on their position
And how they manage the climate
And the changes in the tide.

My heart goes out to the family.
May they find comfort in his memory,
Instruction from his life
And faith from his source of inspiration.

Copyright © 2003 Orlando Ceaser  

This poem was written to the family of Mike Toupè, a friend and product manager for a major pharmaceutical company. He died suddenly of leukemia in his early forties, leaving behind a wife and young children. I thought of it when another young man Rev. Jared Wilkins, nearly twenty years later, died as he reached forty, leaving behind a wife and young children.