On
this day in 1916 Canada welcomed a baby girl on the Gaspe’ Coast
Who
would leave her native land legally after becoming a nurse we all would toast
A
child of The Great Depression that struck Canada hard too
Too
many siblings to feed and to her grandmother where she grew
A
fertile and poetic mind but with a desire to the less fortunate aid
Off
to nursing school and then to join to the U.S. emigrant parade
To
land as a nurse in a hospital in Spokane close to Farragut Naval Base
Where
in due to a sister’s future husband to my father she would come face to face
Marriage
vows to be followed by his shipping out to be in the Navy’s deadliest naval bout
The
Japanese Navy before Okinawa had suffered too many routs
But
the Kamikazes flying toward the invasion fleet had a lot of deadly clout
Through
the hail of AAA suicide planes tried to take our ships out
A
father on a Large Slow Target prayed it would not become a bull’s eye
As
he watched ships by the dozens hit and thousands wounded or die
To
live and return to Long Beach and make his wife a future mother
Not
discharged and back to the Pacific to over his captain as a chief petty officer
hover
I
was born and in the Pacific my father decided in the Navy not to stay in
Returned
and soon believed that in Alaska fame and fortune we would win
Off
to Petersburg where my mom was the hospital’s nursing head
Paid
well and in Little Norway the family fortunes
moved ahead
Between
bedpans and syringes and the OR, poetry she wrote and published in the press
Along
with my father passed on the iambic genes I could not in the future suppress
A
divorce and remarriage and from the Island to leave
With
her many friends and fellow nurses to her absence grieve
To
run a doctor’s office in Coeur d’Alene until colitis forced her to retire
From
nursing not life with mycology, college courses, poetry and pottery art to aspire
Lessons
taught like the value of hard work and education I will take with me to my grave
A
love of reading and creating poetry that causes many to admire and rave
On
this day her birthday and had she not left, she would be a spry young 103
Will
never forget the cribbage games, love, life lessons and knowledge she gave to
me
©
November 7, 2019 Michael P. Ridley
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