A Mothers Lament

A Mother Remembers

A tribute to my twenty-year-old son, Kyle Brennan, who died tragically on February 16, 2007 in Clearwater, Florida. . . . It is in the early morning that I often make the journey to where my youngest son now sleeps--beneath the shadow of Monticello Mountain. There--in the day’s new beginning--the mountain light is crisper, the birdsongs are clearer, and the dew on the grass is still cool. On my way to the cemetery, I drive past the college he once attended, and past Carter’s Mountain where Kyle–the little storyteller–once entertained his young classmates. On the empty passenger seat beside me sits a bouquet of wildflowers and red roses. The backyard gardens of his youth now supply the flowers for his final resting place. When I tend to his grave I find myself singing him soft lullabies, the very same I sang him long ago. It is then that I feel the full weight of my loss. Though life seems as constant as the moon and the stars, and sunshine seems but a day away, I now reside in a sadder place. It is a world filled with memories and reminders of what will never be . . . a world without my Kyle.


Danny Boy
Oh Danny boy, the pipes , the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountainside
The summer’s gone, and all the flowers are dying
‘Tis you, ‘tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow.
‘Tis I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you
And if you come, when all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You’ll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.
And I shall hear, tho’ soft you tread above me
And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be
If you’ll not fail to tell me that you love me
I’ll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.
I’ll simply sleep in peace until you come for me.