A BATTLE SCAR: HE LOVED ME UNTIL THE END by Chato Olivas

January 1, 2023
Sunday

This New Year's Day, I remember my husband Pastor Joenard Gallo who loved me until the end. So now, I am sharing with you the poem I wrote during the season of grief and recovery that my sons and I went through. I wrote the poem in 2013, two years after Joenard went home to our Abba Father.

We can always look back and see how God carried us and made us strong through the years.

Thank you Lord. And thank you that there is always a new beginning.

Romans 8:28 "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." (NLT)

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A BATTLE SCAR: HE LOVED ME UNTIL THE END*
By Chato Olivas-Gallo
Sept. 22, 2013

Widow
That's my status, a scar
From a loss for which
There are no words

I'm a widow
Emerging from a war
That broke out without warning

A war against an illness
That made me witness
My partner fade
Into the night

I still recall
I caught him staring
When he thought
I didn't know

"I just want to memorize your face," he said
Continuing to stare without blinking
As if a blink would switch off the light


"Let me hug you
Let me just cry on your shoulder"
Holding me tight
Saying goodbye without saying.

With a faint tune, he whispered
The wedding song he sang
The day we said "I do" ---
"This is the day that the Lord has made,
I am so glad He made you..."

Then he smiled
And closed his eyes.

Two years.

My sons and I now walk away
From the war zone
Different,
Stronger
Where the scars are
By the grace of the Almighty God.

[All rights reserved. 22 Sept. 2013]


* Title amended on Jan. 2, 2023 by adding "He loved me until the end"