The Other Life Before

This is a poem Lydia wrote in Grade 3, age 8, about her brother Harry.

They were studying the Group of 7 artists, in particular Lawren Harris. They were supposed to meditate on one of his images and write a poem to represent how the painting made them feel. Lydia was meditating on a painting of an old house. She said it made her feel sad, so she thought of the saddest thing she could and wrote about that.

Whoever might wonder if and how a small child experiences grief, here is one answer. Lydia was 4 and a half when Harry died. The students' poems were hanging in the hallway outside of the their classroom for parent-teacher interviews last March. Needless to say, I was a crying mess when Lydia showed me her poem. Poor thing, she thought maybe I didn't like it. I think it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read (but of course, I'm biased!).

Here it is:

The Other Life Before

That other life before.
We played together.

I pushed you on your
trike.

I remember the other life
full of happiness galore!

But
then the following winter
we found out you had cancer.

For the next little whiel you spent
most of your time
in the sickly dredful hospital

. August 3

you died!

Shadows covered my heart.

I felt like I would die too.

My other life before

was with you.

Copyright Lydia Venema, Age 8

(I have included Lydia's mis-spellings to remain true to how she wrote it!)