Certain People

Certain people in our lives 
Help ease the days along.
Without them, we might flounder 
And might not seem quite so strong.

They often are unheralded
Yet all the things they do
Allow us, with our challenges,
To somehow make it through.

And when they sometimes disappear,
For reasons of their own, 
We mourn the loss of comfort
And security we've known.

But sadly, our acceptance
Of the truth makes a demand
That our minds make peace with knowledge
That our hearts can't understand. 

Written for Noreen O'Connor, a devoted former 
employee of Abbott House, an organization that runs the
group home of which my daughter is a resident
(she was let go) and Dario Jaquez, a doorman in
my building I've known since 1976 (he just retired).