It's difficult to forgive
and harder to forget.
But if you don't I promise you,
you'll be filled with regret.
My sister and I were never close.
When I was only four,
at sixteen years too worldly,
she ran right out the door.
We didn't grow up together,
so far apart in years.
Separated from her family,
she left them to their tears.
I got to know her later,
when she came back around.
So different, yet so like me,
We found some common ground.
Still, never close until later.
When our mother passed away,
we found comfort in each other,
knew just the right things to say.
Fast forward to three years ago,
her children just didn't care.
About how ill she had become,
or perhaps just unaware.
Addicted to narcotics, which one?
well take your pick.
She depended on my daughters and I,
for she was always sick.
We did the best we could for her,
tried to help her find her way.
Assisted living, nursing homes,
were the places she would stay.
Until one day, they found some pills.
Devastated that they had caught her,
they asked her where she got them,
she said her niece (my daughter).
She lied of course and after that
we didn't want to see,
the person who had hurt us so,
accused us so boldly.
A year passed by and then a half,
Christmas came and went.
She sent us letters, asked us to come.
Because of me, we never went.
She said that she was sorry,
the truth she had confessed.
She said she felt so guilty,
that she had made this mess.
So one fine day in the month of May,
About two years it's been.
We went to see my sister,
in the group home she lived in.
We only spent two hours,
It seemed like time flew by.
We helped her sort her summer clothes,
there were no tears to cry.
We left with the promise to return.
she called me up to say,
how glad she was that we stopped by.
"I'll see you next Saturday."
I didn't say I love you.
I just said I'll see you then.
What she said was the last words
I'd hear her say.
Though I didn't know it then.
I got a call on Monday,
my sister had died that day.
Alive and well when she went to sleep,
in the night she slipped away.
What has all this taught me?
It isn't hard to say.
When bitterness stops forgiveness,
you waste your time away.
The moments that we could have shared,
the things we could have done.
All gone within the blink of an eye,
leaving regrets you can't out run.
I learned that time is fleeting
and there's no time to waste.
Make the most of everything in life,
that you can see and touch and taste.
I wish I could have my sister back,
even for just a day.
To tell her what she meant to me,
say the things I didn't say.
Though words are said in anger,
when you're troubled or upset.
Just let it go, don't be like me.
Living each day with regret.