Love Song
Today you asked me to write you a poem, custom-made
To read at your wedding
Of course! I replied, thinking
Just you try and stop me!
This request, coming right after ‘Would you like to come shopping for my dress?’
And ‘Could I try and help you with some needles?’
And biggest and best of all ‘ Would you be with us at the birth?’
So you see the pattern here emerging
The giving in
your asking
Our special girl, for both of us, such consolation
A gift after grief
Good news after sad
So glad we posted you in the Guardian
Big-eyed baby who learned (six months no more I swear)
To pull a face and make me laugh
Before 5, to write me billet-doux
Love letters ‘I love you mummy’
Signed Rosie Whittingham
What else can I tell you
Stories you know, oft repeated
The four changes of outfit, minimum
Strewn on your bed, before school
Which custom, Jay says, survives to this day
Telling us perhaps you never have known
Understood, how beautiful you are
Our special girl, daughter and sister
Friend, partner and mum
A gift to us all
If you want someone to lean on, listen
Stand by you in the dark
Then Rosie is your girl
Though perhaps we have to say-
For all the evidence points this way-
She’s Jay’s now, and Luca’s too of course
Fate and chance and previous dire misfortune
Having hurled them together one night, just before Christmas
Drink and music and partying possibly
Having their role to play
And we who loved her always
Had hoped her luck would change
Sighed collectively, relief profound
Finding Jay not only easy on the eye
But decent in his soul
As kind and loving as her dad
-No higher complement Jay-
Together the two of you, the best a boy could want
Creating a home and a life
Full of love
My mother’s wish for all of you
Rosie, Jay, Luca and siblings yet to come
Is taken from a song
Though panic not, you’re spared
No singing on this day
Just heartfelt words I’ll say with love
A prayer from us all
May the long time sun shine on you
All love surround you
And the pure light within you
Guide your way on
August 2010, read at Rosie's wedding to Jay on 6th August 2011, Gayda.
