Reunion -

The stranger stands silently in the dark corner holding a small hand.
All around them is a room filled with people. Some are quietly weeping, while others stand in silence. In the middle of a room a young man is sitting in a chair next to a hospital bed holding his mothers hand.
The stranger can see the tears rolling down his cheeks as he tenderly strokes her cheek. Slowly the stranger looks around the room at each person. He feels each of their pain as though his flesh is being pierced by a thousand stinging wasps. For each person he looks at he has know them for their entire life. He knows their regrets, their dreams and their sorrow.
The strongest pain he feels comes from the young man in the chair. For he knows this man hardly more then a boy has had to make the most difficult choice one can make. He looks at his soul and see's it crying out in anguish.
For every tear that is shed in this room tonight he has cried a thousand seas, his tears are the tears that water the parched earth, from which spring arises eternal.
The stranger knows that time is running out for her. He was there to welcome her upon her birth, he shall be there to welcome her again with open arms. Just as he has been with her forever, he is with her now.
The sound of the machines increases as her time draws near. Again he feels the pain in his flesh. He let's go of the small hand and silently walks across the room to place his hand on the young mans shoulder.
The stranger kneels to hear his voice.. So quiet but so full of strength. He hears the young man whisper to her...."You can go. I'll be ok. I love you.". Her time here is at hand.
The stranger moves forward to the end of the bed and at that moment all the heavens go silent...
The stranger extends his hand as she rises from her bed and stands, no longer a prisoner in the cell of her body.
The stranger embraces her, so long she has been gone from his loving embrace. She is home. The stranger releases her from his embrace as a tear rolls down his cheek. "I've known you since before your birth. When you could not walk it was I who carried you, for I have always loved you."
The stranger looks at the young man one, seeing through his eyes the pain that would become his cross, knowing he could not take it away from him "when the cross is to heavy to bare I will carry the both of you through the desert of remorse and regret for I have loved you before you were born."
Knowing he can do no more the stranger takes her hand and guides her to the small child who stands in the corner quietly.
The stranger kneels down next to the child and smiles at him. The little boy looks from the stranger to her. His smile so intense he walks to her open arms where she picks him up and
embraces him tightly to her chest.
The stranger silently watches this reunion. The power of their love for one another is beyond time and this plain. The stranger looks again to the young man embracing his mother knowing the course of his life, knowing the challenges he will face.
He kneels before little boy and whispers in his ear. The little boy walks over to the young man and puts his small hand in the young mans hand.
" I love you daddy"

- I originally wrote this in the weeks following my mothers death. In the weeks before my son's birth I rewrote it as I felt it was incomplete without his presence as I truly believe he was there too welcome her home.-