Submission 13

Dear E,

If I could talk to you one last time
I'd say things from this silly little rhyme.

You'd get a hot water bottle as soon as you walked in the door
Fed some pizza, then a little bit more.

I'd tell you what I love about you and make sure you listened,
Because you always came up with lists of negatives, so I'm certain you've missed them.

Your heart was just an abundance of kindness,
And wanted to protect the world with the fearlessness of a lioness.

Your beauty shone out to everyone around you,
I just wish that you could have seen this too.

Intelligence was something you seemed to doubt a lot,
Friends going to uni didn't mean you were any less well read, I promise it did not

If you were here now you’d be wrapped up so tight in all our arms,
We would wish for you a comforting calm.

You were so talented and brilliant at sewing,
Recently had always seemed to have some arty clothes Project going.

The planet and animals were of course up there with your top passions,
You tried to make people see we only had one earth that would never go out of fashion.

My rhymes are a little weak, cheesy and shit,
But I've not said anywhere near enough for me to finish it.

You made me think about my life and our illness,
And I would always look for a way for it to not let it kill us.

Because there was so much more to have been done,
More holidays abroad loving it in the sun.

But I don't want to let myself go down the list of things that can’t happen now,
And instead I want to look at your life and just think, all that in 24 years? HOW

You would always choose to make someone feel better,
Even over the chance to not be sitting on your own stinging nettles.

I know I keep telling you about your love and your kindness,
But it was of a level of love only you could harness.

Till the other day I never realised how many peoples lives a death affects,
But it chips away at so many hearts, more than I could expect.

I think one painful loss for the world,
Is that no one else will get to meet you, our wonderful girl.

I literally don't know how to rhyme anything to explain your humour,
But it needs to be included in here for you to hear because it makes me wish I'd met you sooner.

You were charismatic, energetic and a magnet for love,
Although sometimes you should have kept some for yourself.

You got so ill this year,
We didn't want to lose you.
You are our imperfectly perfect E,
A loving force to be reckoned with.

Forever, our perfectly imperfect E.